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Hudsonian Godwit

Silhouette ShorebirdsShorebirds
Hudsonian GodwitLimosa haemastica
  • ORDER: Charadriiformes
  • FAMILY: Scolopacidae

Basic Description

Hudsonian Godwits are graceful shorebirds with long, slightly upturned bills, long legs, and a glorious breeding plumage of gold, brown, and brick red. They wade through arctic bogs and tidal mudflats, using their long bills to reach deep into the mud for invertebrate prey. They change to a subtle gray-brown nonbreeding plumage, and then undertake an incredible migration—nearly 10,000 miles to near the tip of South America. The passage involves flights of thousands of miles without a stop, some of it over open ocean.

More ID Info
image of range map for Hudsonian Godwit
Year-roundBreedingMigrationNonbreeding
Range map provided by Birds of the World
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Find This Bird

In North America, look for Hudsonian Godwits during spring migration. Much of their fall migration is over open ocean. In spring they may turn up in many sorts of muddy wetland habitats, and they are more likely in the center of the continent than on the Atlantic or Pacific Coasts. The Upper Texas Coast is a good place to look for them in spring, especially in flooded rice fields full of shorebirds. Spring flocks numbering in the dozens or hundreds also appear in Kansas, the Dakotas, and Saskatchewan.

Other Names

  • Aguja Café (Spanish)
  • Barge hudsonienne (French)
  • Cool Facts