Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica)

Order: CHARADRIIFORMES
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Limosa

Conservation: Near Threatened
Commonness: Very common
Best seen: Year-round

01 · Identification

How to tell it apart

The bar-tailed godwit is a large and strongly migratory wader in the family Scolopacidae, which feeds on bristle-worms and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries. It has distinctive red breeding plumage, long legs, and a long upturned bill. Bar-tailed godwits breed on Arctic coasts and tundra from Scandinavia to Alaska, and overwinter on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of Australia and New Zealand. The migration of the subspecies Limosa lapponica baueri across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird, and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal. The round-trip migration for this subspecies is over 29,000 km (18,020 mi).

Description · wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

02 · Where

Where to find it

Breeding range: Patchily in low Arctic tundra of north Palearctic: far north Scandinavia to Chukotskiy and Anadyr pens. (north-east Russia) and north and west Alaska
Non-breeding range: AF, OR, AU : mainly temperate to tropical coasts: British Isles, south Europe, west Mediterranean, Africa, Malagasy region through Middle East, Indian subcontinent, south-east Asia, Indonesian Arch.; Ryukyu Is. (south Japan), south-east China, Taiwan, Philippines, Australasia from New Guinea region to Melanesia and New Zealand, and Fiji (south-west Polynesia)

03 · When