Black-tailed Godwit
Black-tailed Godwit: Large, tall godwit with black-barred, orange-brown body. orange-brown head and neck, and white mark between eye and bill; combination of prominent white rump, white wing bar, and pure white underwings is unique among the godwits. Black-tipped yellow bill is long and straight.
● Song:
"vi vi vi"
● Foraging & Feeding:
Black-tailed Godwit: Walks leisurely and gracefully in shallow to fairly deep water, probing soft mud and sand repeatedly with its long stout bill. Nearly always feeds in groups, sometimes numbering in the thousands, that congregate on mudflats and flooded grasslands.
● Breeding & nesting:
Black-tailed Godwit: Breeds on wet grasslands near freshwater marshes. Male performs complex courtship flights, calling and posturing in front of female. Lays four olive green, brown blotched eggs among short grasses. Both parents incubate for 22 to 24 days and care for chicks until their first flight at one month old.
● Similar species:
Black-tailed Godwit: Bar-tailed Godwit lacks strongly barred underparts in breeding plumage. Hudsonian Godwit has much darker upperparts, and richer more extensive chestnut coloration underneath.