Bar-tailed godwit

Bar-tailed godwit

Limosa lapponica

Wingspan: 70-80cm

The bar‑tailed godwit is a long‑distance migratory wader found around the Solent during the winter months. It favours estuaries, mudflats and sandy shores, where it feeds and rests before returning to its Arctic breeding grounds in spring.

All about the bar-tailed godwit

You’ll often see bar‑tailed godwits in large, sometimes noisy flocks. They feed by making rapid probing movements in the mud – often without stopping walking as they search for food. When they fly in to roost, they twist and roll through the sky in tight, coordinated flocks.

The Solent’s rich intertidal habitats provide vital feeding areas that help them build the energy reserves needed for their extraordinary migrations.

How to tell them apart from black‑tailed godwits

Bar‑tailed and black‑tailed godwits can look similar, but there are some reliable differences:

• In flight: bar‑tailed godwits do not have white wing bars.
• On the ground: they have shorter legs and a slightly upcurved bill, compared with the straighter bill of the black‑tailed godwit.

Local spotlight

Much scarcer than the similar black‑tailed godwit, the Solent typically supports between 300 and 600 bar‑tailed godwits during the peak winter months of December to March. Unfortunately, local numbers are declining, making the Solent’s protected habitats even more important for their survival.

Conservation status

Bar-tailed godwit are amber listed in the UK.

Bar-tailed godwit are a qualifying feature for the Chichester and Langstone Harbours Special Protection Area – that means, when the site was designated, a nationally significant number of this species use our coastlines in the winter.

Find out more about the Special Protection Areas on the Solent.