| Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa (Linnaeus, 1758)) |
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Scientific name: Limosa limosa (Linnaeus, 1758) Common name: Black-tailed Godwit French name: Barge à queue noire Order: Charadriiformes Family: Scolopacidae Size: Body size: 36 to 44 cm; Weight: 280 to 340 g; Wingspan: 70 to 82 cm. Males are slightly smaller than females. Habitat: Grassy tundra, steppes and water meadows, marshes. Bays and estuaries in winter. Food: Invertebrates, insects, worms, molluscs and water plants in winter. Nesting: Black-tailed Godwits nest in colonies. The nest is a small depression located in a place with low vegetation. There are 3 to 6 eggs per brood. Migration: Black-tailed Godwits move southwards in winter. Based on that, the populations you can observe in the British Isles are not the same birds in winter and in summer. Geographic area: Iceland, Europe and some areas of Central Asia as far as in eastern Russia in summer. In winter, western and southern Europe, Africa south of the Sahara, southern Asia and Australia. |
The Black-tailed Godwit has a slender silhouette perched on two long legs. In nuptial plumage, the neck and the chest are pale rusty-brown. The belly, the rump and the base of the tail are white. The tip of the tail is black. In flight, you can see a large white bar on the upper side of the wings. The eyebrow is white. There is a dark eye stripe running to the base of the bill. The long and straight bill is pink or yellowish near the base and shows a black tip. Females are less coloured than males and sometimes remain more greyish. In winter plumage, the Black-tailed Godwit has a dominant pale grey colour. The lower part of the chest and the belly are white. The Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) is more short-legged and less slender. No problem to differentiate it in flight with the lack of well marked black colour area at the tail tip and the lack of white bar on the upper side of the wings. In nuptial plumage, the male is a darker rusty-red colour and shows a dark bill. |
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These Black-tailed Godwits, observed on a small pond at a few hundred of metres form the Wadden Sea, appeared to me perched on much longer legs that the numerous Bar-tailed Godwits I had just seen at low tide. The species identification is confirmed by the long and straight bill with a yellow colour near the base and a black tip. |
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The few Black-tailed Godwits observed on the Texel island appeared to me more orange coloured than the numerous Bar-tailed Godwits. |
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For once I can photograph a Black-tailed Godwit not too far away, the bank of one of the arms of the Danube Delta gives a somewhat busy background image which is not the best effect. |
André Bon November 2024
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