Miscellaneous Birds Codexery

Godwit

Long-billed waders known for extreme non-stop migratory flights.

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Godwits are shorebirds in the genus Limosa, introduced by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.[1] Godwits were once popular as food in the British Isles, with Sir Thomas Browne noting around 1682 that they "were accounted the daintiest dish in England".[2] The Latin term limus, meaning "mud", is the root of the genus name Limosa, which translates to "muddy".[1] The earliest known written use of the English name "godwit" dates to around 1416–17, and it is thought to be onomatopoeic, mimicking the bird's vocalization.[1]

Scientific classification

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumChordata
  3. ClassAves
  4. OrderCharadriiformes
  5. FamilyScolopacidae
  6. GenusLimosa

Named by Brisson, 1760

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Godwit (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quick Facts

Type species
Scolopax limosa

Facts from the source article.

Biology and range

The genus contains four living species.[3] A female bar-tailed godwit tracked by satellite flew 29,000 km in a series of flights, including the longest non-stop flight recorded for a land bird.[4] That bird, dubbed "E7," was captured with 15 other godwits in New Zealand in early February 2007.[4] E7 was tracked to the Yukon Delta coast, where she joined other godwits preparing for their return flight to New Zealand.[4]

Since they are land birds, godwits cannot stop to eat or drink while flying over open ocean.[4] Godwits do not become adults until their 3rd or 4th year, and many live beyond 20 years of age.[4] That bird set off from southwest Alaska on 16 September and arrived near Auckland 11 days later, flying at speeds up to 55 mph.[5] The male bar-tailed godwit, with a standard weight between 190 gm and 400 gm, can double in size before a long flight but shrinks its internal organs to lighten the load.[5]

A male bar-tailed godwit set a new avian non-stop flight record in 2020 when it traveled roughly 12,200 km from Alaska to New Zealand without landing.[6][5]

What the specialist sources record

The US Geological Survey reported in 2007 that a female bar-tailed godwit completed an 18,000-mile series of flights tracked by satellite.[4] A 2020 Guardian article described a bar-tailed godwit as having the aerodynamic build of a "jet fighter" and setting a new world record for avian non-stop flight.[5] The same article noted that the previous longest recorded non-stop bird flight, of 11,680 km, was recorded in 2007.[5] A 2022 Weather Channel report stated that godwits are known to traverse the globe each year.[7]

GBIF holds 3,119,520 occurrence records for the genus Limosa as of 17 October 2026.[8]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Godwit" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Brisson, "Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Divisio Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés", Jean-Baptiste Bauche, 1760; "Check-list of Birds of the World", Harvard University Press, 1934, p. 263; Jobling, "The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names", Christopher Helm, 2010, p. 227; (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Godwit" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Godwit" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Buttonquail, plovers, seedsnipe, sandpipers", World Bird List Version 9.1, 2019 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. "Bird Completes Epic Flight Across the Pacific", ScienceDaily, 17 September 2007. facts only, no text reused. sciencedaily.com
  5. Boffey, "'Jet fighter' godwit breaks world record for non-stop bird flight", The Guardian, 13 October 2020. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  6. Wikipedia, "Godwit" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Bird Completes Epic Flight Across the Pacific", ScienceDaily, 17 September 2007; Boffey, "'Jet fighter' godwit breaks world record for non-stop bird flight", The Guardian, 13 October 2020; "An Incredible Bird Was Tracked As It Made A Cross-Globe Journey From Alaska To Tasmania (video)", The Weather Channel, 27 October 2022 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. "An Incredible Bird Was Tracked As It Made A Cross-Globe Journey From Alaska To Tasmania (video)", The Weather Channel, 27 October 2022. facts only, no text reused. weather.com
  8. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence index, Limosa (taxon key 2481679). CC BY 4.0 (backbone); counts are facts. gbif.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Godwit (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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