Marbled Godwit Identification Guide

Key Field Marks

• Size & shape: A large shorebird, 42-48 cm, with a long neck, long blue-grey legs, and a long, slightly upturned bill that is bicolored — pink or orange at the base shading to black at the tip.
• Plumage: Warm cinnamon-buff overall, densely mottled and barred with dark brown, giving a rich 'marbled' appearance year-round (breeding and nonbreeding plumages are similar, unlike many shorebirds).
• In flight: Shows warm cinnamon underwings and wing linings, a useful mark at a distance or in flight silhouette.

Separating It From Similar Species

• Hudsonian Godwit is smaller and darker, with a black tail and white uppertail base, a white wing stripe visible in flight, chestnut underparts in breeding plumage, and a blackish (not cinnamon) underwing.
• Long-billed Curlew has a strongly down-curved bill rather than an upturned one and lacks the sharp bicolored bill pattern.
• Willet is shorter-billed with a straight bill and shows a bold black-and-white wing pattern in flight, quite different from the godwit's plain cinnamon wings.
• The combination of large size, upturned bicolored bill, and uniformly warm cinnamon-brown body is diagnostic for Marbled Godwit.

Where & When to See One

• Breeding habitat: Native mixed-grass prairie near shallow wetlands and ponds in the northern Great Plains.
• Range: Breeds in Montana, the Dakotas, and adjacent southern Saskatchewan, with a small disjunct population near James Bay; winters along both US coasts south through Mexico and into Central America, favoring tidal mudflats, sandy beaches, and estuaries.
• Season: Present on breeding grounds spring through summer; widespread on wintering coastal habitats from fall through spring, with many nonbreeders remaining year-round in some winter areas.

Voice

• A loud, far-carrying, strident call often rendered as ka-DIK, ka-DIK or a barking god-WIT-like cry, frequently given in flight and useful for locating birds before they are seen.