Bar-tailed Godwit

The bar-tailed godwit is a large, fairly short-legged godwit, 37–41cm long with a wingspan of 70–80cm; females are larger, weighing up to 630g against up to 400g for males. It has blue-grey legs and a long, tapering, slightly upturned bill, pink at the base and black towards the tip. Breeding males are brick red on the neck, breast and belly and dark brown above, while females are much duller. Non-breeding birds are plain grey-brown. Its name comes from the black-and-white barring on the tail and upper tail coverts (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra from Scandinavia to Alaska and feeds on bristle-worms and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries. It is one of the greatest long-distance migrants: the subspecies baueri flies non-stop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, the longest known non-stop flight of any bird, on a round trip of over 29,000km. Five subspecies are recognised. In India it is a winter migrant with a restricted range; SoIB 2023 has too little data for a long-term trend and rates it a Moderate conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).