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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Black Tailed/Bar Tailed Godwit (1 Viewer)

deborah4 said:
Meanwhile try another memory aid for a bit of fun:

MALE Bar-tailed = the ALCOHOLIC bird

1. Beer gut
2. Head in it's drink, nose pointing up at optics
3. Drinks slowly to avoid a long bill
3. Alcoholic flush
4. Legless

all leads to being BARRED permanently in the end! (female tries to avoid bars altogether except at tail-end of the evening, and generally shows a warm peachy glow rather than alcoholic flush)

MALE and FEMALE Black-tailed = BINGE drinkers

1. Knocks back it's drink one after the other - 'bottoms up'
2. One night out leaves them with a Long bill in the red
3. Have beginnings of alcoholic flush (although Icelandic drinkers tend to develop greater flush similar to alcoholic Bar-Tailed) but then always gets BARRED in the middle of the evening rather than at the end
4. Usually have the legs to walk away!

B :) B :)
Click to expand...

Exellent stuff:'D

I shall now endeavour to scrawl the above notes into the relevant pages of my Collins field guide!!

If ever I passed it on I'd love to see the new owners face as they read the added verse;)

Matt
 
Last edited:
Isn't it odd; the way that you notice things so much more readily after a little discussion and a few pointers from others?

I simply went back to the Collins guide last night, something that I probably haven't done for Godwits for six months or so (more fool me), to find that Black Tailed and Bar Tailed are on the same page and that the differences that have been pointed out on this thread have suddenly become very clear and obvious.

Doesn't it just highlight the difference between "looking" and "seeing"?

A good simple lesson for me there I think. I've been watching birds for thirty five years in a very solitary way but only in the last five years or so; have I been talking about birds and watching them with people that are really experienced and knowledgeable, only in the last five years; have I really started "seeing".

Thanks folks.
 
DGRW said:
Isn't it odd; the way that you notice things so much more readily after a little discussion and a few pointers from others?
Click to expand...

This observation is spot on, though people don't have to be more experienced than you to see things from a different perspective. I always find it's good to discuss a bird with people around you at the time (if there are any that is!) as you often have features pointed out to you that you didn't notice.

Good birding

Ken.
 
One way to remember the leg length feature is to think if you could write BAR or BLACK along the top part of the leg... I think you can guess which is which.

Mark Grantham
BTO
 
The real hard ID is telling Bar-tailed Godwits from Grey Plovers at long distance in mixed flocks. Especially sleeping birds way out on the mudflats.

Its a surprising problem, and one only WeBS counters will have encountered...
 
Frenchy said:
Especially sleeping birds way out on the mudflats.
Click to expand...

lol, Frenchy, sleeping waders way out on the mudflats - you're having a laugh aren't you! (Tips for New Birders: get a very powerful scope!)

My bete noire is juvenile grey plovers and golden plovers when their heads are tucked away ... way out on the mud flats
 
deborah4 said:
lol, Frenchy, sleeping waders way out on the mudflats - you're having a laugh aren't you! (Tips for New Birders: get a very powerful scope!)

My bete noire is juvenile grey plovers and golden plovers when their heads are tucked away ... way out on the mud flats
Click to expand...

I wish i was! Mind you, some times i'm trying to ID stuff at 3km away, so you start to enter the realms of percentage birding! Dot = Curlew, little dot = plover/barwit, dark smear on the waters edge = knot. Dunlins don't exist at that range!

I mentioned the barwit/grey plover problem to a very experienced wader counter, and he completely agreed, so it was a releif to hear that i wasn't going mad.
 
Another tip: there's a substantial size difference between male and female bar-tailed godwits (females bigger, longer-billed), which could lead to females being ID'd as blackwits by the unwary.

Sean
 
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