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Marbled Godwit - BirdForum Opus

Revision as of 08:38, 23 October 2018 by Jmorlan (talk | contribs) (→‎Subspecies: Added subspecies descriptions.)
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Adult in breeding plumage
Photo © by bobsofpa
Fort DeSoto Park, Florida, USA, 11 April 2017
Limosa fedoa

Identification

Long blue-grey legs, very long pink bill with a slight upward curve and dark at the tip. Neck, breast and belly are pale brown with dark bars on the breast and flanks. The back is mottled and dark. Cinnamon wing linings in flight. Lacks ventral barring in winter plumage.

Similar Species

Bar-tailed Godwit is smaller with longer primary projection and shorter legs. It lacks the rich cinnamon color of the Marbled Godwit. Long-billed Curlew has body color and pattern similar to Marbled Godwit, but is larger with very long decurved bill, not always evident when birds are sleeping.

Distribution

Breeds Canadian and U.S. Great Plains; winters Pacific U.S., Argentina and Chile.

Taxonomy

Adult winter plumage
Photo © by gigo
Fort Myers Beach, Florida, USA, 10 December 2004

Subspecies

This is a polytypic species. Two subspecies are recognized[1]

  • L. f. beringiae - Smaller: breeds Alaskan Peninsula; winters coastal Washington to California
  • L. f. fedoa - Larger: breeds Great Plains of North America; winters to Argentina and Chile

Habitat

Mudflats, marshes, beaches. Short grass.

Behaviour

  • Diet includes insects and crustaceans, and parts of aquatic plants.
  • Nests on the ground, usually in short grass.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Chandler, R. (2009). Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A photographic guide. Princeton Univ. Press.
  3. Gratto-Trevor, C. L. (2000). Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.492
  4. Van Gils, J., Wiersma, P., Kirwan, G.M. & Sharpe, C.J. (2018). Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/53891 on 23 October 2018).
  5. Wikipedia contributors. (2018, July 26). Marbled godwit. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:11, October 23, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marbled_godwit&oldid=852050089

Recommended Citation

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