Bar-Tailed Godwit

Maori Name: Kuaka

Limosa lapponica baueri

                                                                                 

Banding recoveries and leg-flag sightings show that some adult Bar-Tailed Godwits reach NZ in late September/early October by flying non-stop the 11,000 kilometres across the Pacific from their breeding grounds in western Alaska, though some others, and perhaps most juveniles, travel the 3500km longer route through eastern Asia and Australia, arriving in NZ in Oct-December.  They are the most common Arctic wader to visit NZ with up to 110,000 present here each summer.  Up to 18,000 birds remain for the southern winter, presumably mainly youngsters as few are in breeding plumage in winter.

 

Bar-tailed Godwits leave NZ in March or early April and head for the Yellow Sea and Japan, with some stopping briefly in northern Australia or Irian Jaya (West Papua).  They reach their breeding grounds in western Alaska in May and early June, after another refuelling stop on the Kamchatka Peninsula of eastern Russia.

The breeding male has a brick-red head with a whitish stripe above the eye.  It has dark brown upperparts with a buff edge to the feathers, while the neck and underparts are chestnut.  The underwing is white, and the tails is brown barred with white.  It has a long thin bill which is brownish-pink in colour.  The female is greyish streaked with brown on her upperparts, has a buff breast tinged with red, and the underparts are white with fine barring on the edges of the abdomen.  Females are larger than males and have longer bills.

 

The Bar-tailed Godwits breed from Southern Scandinavia across northern Siberia to Alaska and migrate mainly to estuaries and coasts of tropical and temperate regions from Europe and Africa to Australasia and south-western pacific islands, such as Vanuatu, New Caledonia and particularly Fiji.  When in NZ they can be found throughout the country, on estuaries and sandy coasts but especially on inlets and estuaries with broad inter-tidal mudflats.

 

 

 

 

The Bar-tailed Godwit is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Water birds (AEWA) applies.  Threats to this bird include destruction of the bird’s habitats especially migratory feeding grounds, and human settlement and construction around estuaries. Dogs, horses and 4WD vehicles also pose a threat to shorebirds such as the bar-tailed godwit. It is important to be aware of shorebirds and maintain a reasonable distance to avoid disturbing them.