Male: Breeding: Upperparts, dark with buff edges. Breast, underparts, bold ox-blood red with heavy dark bars on flanks. Short, white wing bar, visible both from above and below. Narrow, white rump. Undertail coverts, barred black and white. Tail, black, white a white tip, white uppertail coverts. Underwing coverts, black. Bill, dark brown at tip, pinkish at base. Legs, dark grey. Non-breeding: Upperparts, grey brow, lighter on the breast. Neck, streaked grey and blackish-brown. Underparts, whitish, with remnant coarse dark bars on wings and flanks.
Female: Breeding: Like male but larger and upperparts greyer. Underparts, much paler red, with white blotching. Tertials, less patterned, often with small notches. Non-breeding: As for male.
Immatures: Similar to non-breeding adult, but darker with buff edges to feathers of mantle and upper scapulars. Lower scapulars, tertials, with buff notches.
Other Names (World)
Hudsonian Godwit, American Black-tailed Godwit
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina (NB), Barbados (NB), Bolivia (NB), Brazil (NB), Canada (B) (P), Chile (NB), Ecuador (P), Falkland Islands (Malvinas) (NB), Mexico (NB), Paraguay (NB), Peru (NB), St Pierre and Miquelon (P), Uruguay (NB), USA (B), Venezuela (NB).
Vagrant to Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Africa, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Kingdom, Virgin Islands (U.S.).
Unknown to Costa Rica (NB), Guatemala (NB), Panama (NB).
Locally from north-western and southern Alaska to Hudson Bay. Winters on Atlantic coast of southern South America; also Chiloé I, south-central Chile.
Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) [XC548845]
by Seth Beaudreault (Toolik Field Station) from Unorganized Yukon, Yukon, Yukon, Canada (call, flight call, song)
Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) [XC44344]
by Bernabe Lopez-Lanus from Chonchi, X Region, Chile (call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Does not breed in Australia. Breeds in Alaska and Canada, winters far southern South America. Some reach New Zealand anually.
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Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa), of which sometimes considered a subspecies.
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa)
Similar size. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Bill, longer and straighter. Larger white rump. In flight, legs extend further beyong tail tip. Underwing, white.
Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica)
Slightly larger. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Bill, similarly upturned. Face darker with less distinct eyebrow. Underwing, dark (not black) and barred. Lacks a white wing bar. Rump, white, with a white wedge that extends up the back. Tail, is barred and lacks whitish tips.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
BirdLife International Species Factsheet