Marbled Godwit

Description

A large and heavily built godwit, with a long, slightly upturned, bicolor bill and rich brown overall coloring, the Marbled Godwit breeds inland in northern wetlands and prairies and winters along the coasts. 

Marbled Godwits are social, nesting in semi-colonial groups with no real territorial boundaries. They are fall and early spring migrants in Tennessee, found walking and probing the mudflats near shallow pools and ponds.

Marbled godwits have a long, slightly upturned creamy pink bill with a dark tip, long bluish-gray legs, rich buff-brown color overall, cinnamon wing linings, and cinnamon stripe in the wing and finely barred across the chest. The chest is buffy and plain in winter.

Length: 18 inches
Wingspan: 30 inches
Weight: 13 oz.

Voice: Accented, trumpeting “kerwhit, kerwhit” (godwit)

Similar Species: Hudsonian Godwit – In breeding plumage, heavily barred, reddish chestnut underparts. black tail with a white stripe on the base, white rump, long, pointed slightly upturned light pink bill with black tip. In winter plain gray back and neck and whitish underparts. Long-billed Curlew – Larger in size, long decurved bill, indistinct eye line, buffy underparts, cinnamon, heavily marked brown flight feathers, and dull blue-gray legs. Long-billed Curlew is exceptionally rare in Tennessee (less than 5 records) and is not likely to be found.

Habitat: In Tennessee, the Marbled Godwit can occasionally be found in cultivated fields, marshes, mudflats, and transient pools of water.

Diet: Insects, crabs, worms, aquatic plant tubers, small fish, leeches, and small mollusks.

Nesting and reproduction: There are no known records of this species nesting in Tennessee.

Status in Tennessee: Marbled Godwit is an uncommon migrant in fall and early spring.