| Godwit Temporal range:Barstovian–recent[1] | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Black-tailed (front) andBar-tailed godwit (back) | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Scolopacidae |
| Subfamily: | Tringinae |
| Genus: | Limosa Brisson, 1760 |
| Type species | |
| Scolopax limosa Linnaeus, 1758 | |
| Species | |
4, seetext | |
Godwits are a group of four large, long-billed, long-legged and stronglymigratorywaders of the birdgenusLimosa. Their long bills allow them to probe deeply in the sand for aquatic worms andmolluscs. In their winter range, they flock together where food is plentiful. They frequent tidal shorelines, breeding in northern climates in summer and migrating south in winter. A femalebar-tailed godwit made a flight of 29,000 km (18,000 mi), flying 11,680 kilometres (7,260 mi) of it without stopping.[2] In 2020 a male bar-tailed godwit flew about 12,200 kilometres (7,600 mi) non-stop in its migration from Alaska to New Zealand, previously a record for avian non-stop flight.[3]In October 2022, a 5 month old, male bar-tailed godwit was tracked fromAlaska toTasmania, a trip that took 11 days, and recorded a non-stop flight of 8,400 miles (13,500 km).[4]
The godwits can be distinguished from thecurlews by their straight or slightly upturned bills, and from thedowitchers by their longer legs. The winter plumages are fairly drab, but three species have reddish underparts when breeding. The females are appreciably larger than the males.
Godwits were once popular as food in theBritish Isles. SirThomas Browne writing in about 1682 noted that godwits "were accounted the daintiest dish in England".[5]
ThegenusLimosa was introduced by the French zoologistMathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with theblack-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) as thetype species.[6][7] The genus nameLimosa is fromLatin and means "muddy", fromlimus, "mud".[8] The English name "godwit" was first recorded in about 1416–17 and is believed to imitate the bird's call.[5]
The genus contains four living species:[9]
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bar-tailed godwit
| Limosa lapponica (Linnaeus, 1758) | Scandinavia to Alaska, temperate and tropical regions of Australia and New Zealand. | Size: Habitat: Diet: | NT |
| Black-tailed godwit
| Limosa limosa (Linnaeus, 1758) | the Indian subcontinent, Australia, New Zealand, western Europe and west Africa. | Size: Habitat: Diet: | NT |
| Hudsonian godwit
| Limosa haemastica (Linnaeus, 1758) | northern Canada and winters in southern South America. | Size: Habitat: Diet: | VU |
| Marbled godwit
| Limosa fedoa (Linnaeus, 1758) Two subspecies
| Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts of the US and Mexico. | Size: Habitat: Diet: | VU |
In addition, there are two or three species offossil prehistoric godwits.Limosa vanrossemi is known from theMonterey Formation (LateMiocene, approx. 6mya) ofLompoc, United States.Limosa lacrimosa is known from the Early Pliocene of Western Mongolia (Kurochkin, 1985).Limosa gypsorum of the LateEocene (Montmartre Formation, some 35 mya) of France may have actually been acurlew or some bird ancestral to both curlews and godwits (and possibly otherScolopacidae), or even arail, being placed in themonotypic genusMontirallus by some (Olson, 1985). Certainly, curlews and godwits are rather ancient and in some respects primitive lineages of scolopacids, further complicating the assignment of such possiblybasal forms.[10]
In a 2001 study comparing the ratios cerebrum to brain volumes in various dinosaur species, Hans C. E. Larsson found that more derived dinosaurs generally had proportionally more voluminous cerebrum.[11]Limosa gypsorum, then regarded as aNumenius species, was a discrepancy in this general trend.[12]L. gypsorum was only 63% of the way between a typical reptilian ratio and that of modern birds.[12] However, this may be explainable if the endocast was distorted, as it had been previously depicted in the past by Deschaseaux, who is described by Larsson as calling the endocast "slightly anteroposteriorly sheared and laterally compressed."[12]
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