Hudsonian Godwit

The Hudsonian Godwit is a medium-large shorebird with a long, slightly upturned bicolored bill (pink at the base, dark at the tip). Breeding adults are richly colored, with chestnut-and-black barred underparts and dark, mottled upperparts; in flight they show a distinctive dark tail with a contrasting white uppertail band, a narrow white wing stripe, and dark, almost black underwing coverts.

Non-breeding birds are much plainer gray-brown above and pale below, but retain the same distinctive dark underwing and tail pattern.

The species is celebrated among ornithologists for its extraordinary migration: some individuals fly nonstop for thousands of kilometers over open ocean between staging areas and their wintering grounds in southern South America.

Key field marks

• Long, slightly upturned bicolored bill
• Breeding: chestnut, black-barred underparts
• Dark tail with narrow white band at the base, visible in flight
• Black (not cinnamon) underwing coverts—key difference from Marbled Godwit
• Narrow white wing stripe in flight

Similar species

• Marbled Godwit is larger, warmer cinnamon-buff overall, and shows cinnamon (not black) underwings.
• Black-tailed Godwit has a broader white wing stripe and different tail pattern.
• Bar-tailed Godwit shows a barred tail rather than a solid dark tail with white base.

Hudsonian Godwits breed in scattered, disjunct locations across subarctic wetlands and tundra of Alaska and Canada, particularly around Hudson Bay. They undertake extremely long migrations, staging in large numbers at key coastal and interior wetlands before making prolonged nonstop flights to wintering grounds in southern South America, especially the coasts and wetlands of Argentina and Chile.

Voice

A sharp, repeated ta-it or god-wit-like call, along with various chattering notes given on the breeding grounds and during migration.

Feeding

Probes mud and shallow water with its long bill for insects, mollusks, and other invertebrates; on breeding grounds it also takes insect larvae from wet tundra and marsh habitats.

Nesting

Nests on the ground in wet subarctic meadows or tundra, well concealed among low vegetation. Both parents incubate and defend the nest, and the species is notably wary and elusive on its breeding grounds, contributing to its historically poorly known biology.