DSC8114 Black tailed Godwit - a photo on Flickriver

            Black tailed Godwit - Limosa Limosa

Norfolk
 
These large wading birds are a Schedule 1 species. In summer, they have bright orangey-brown chests and bellies, but in winter they're more greyish-brown.
 
Their most distinctive features are their long beaks and legs, and the black and white stripes on their wings. Female black-tailed godwits are bigger and heavier than the males, with a noticeably longer beak (which helps the sexes to avoid competing for food with each other).
 
They're very similar to bar-tailed godwits, which breed in the Arctic. Black-tailed godwits have longer legs, and bar-tailed godwits don't have striped wings. As the names suggest, the tail patterns are different, too.
 
Black-tailed godwits are much more likely to be found on inland wetlands than the more coastal bar-tailed godwit. They migrate in flocks to western Europe, Africa, south Asia and Australia. Although this species occurs in Ireland and Great Britain all year-round, they are not the same birds. The breeding birds depart in autumn, but are replaced in winter by the larger Icelandic race. These birds occasionally appear in the Aleutian Islands and, rarely, on the Atlantic coast of North America.
 
There is an estimated global population of between 634,000 and 805,000 birds and estimated range of 7,180,000 square kilometres (2,770,000 sq mi). In 2006 BirdLife International classified this species as Near Threatened due to a decline in numbers of around 25% in the previous 15 years. It is also among the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
 
In Europe, black-tailed godwits are only hunted in France, with the annual total killed estimated at 6,000 to 8,000 birds. This puts additional pressure on the western European population, and the European Commission has a management plan in place for the species in its member states.

In England, black-tailed godwits were formerly much prized for the table. Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) said: "[Godwits] were accounted the daintiest dish in England and I think, for the bignesse, of the biggest price."
 
Population:
 
UK breeding:
 
54-57 pairs of the limosa 'Eurasian' subspecies, and 7-9 pairs of the islandica subspecies
 
UK wintering:
 
44,000 birds from the Icelandic population
 
UK passage:
 
12,400 birds
 
Europe:
 
99-140,000 pairs

Taken on: September 22, 2021

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Jeff Lack Photography « less

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