Marbled Godwit
Limosa fedoa
A large and heavily built godwit, with a long, slightly upturned, bi-color 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 often found walking and probing the mudflats near shallow pools and ponds.
Description: 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, 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.
