Western Europe Birds & Birding (#14/52): From the Highland Willow Scrub of Scotland to the Aegean Islands in the Sea of Crete, Western Europe is home to over 800 resident, migratory and vagrant birds. From songbirds to gamebirds and from waterfowl to raptors, you can find birds virtually in every nook and cranny of this beautiful area. *All images showcased in this blog series were taken and edited by me.
A Reflections of the Natural World Blog Post Series by Jim Gain
Physical Characteristics:
The Black-tailed Godwit, scientifically known as Limosa limosa, is a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird. It is characterized by its long legs and an equally long, straight bill. During the breeding season, the bill has a yellowish or orange-pink base and a dark tip, while the base turns pink in winter. The legs are dark grey, brown, or black. All four subspecies of the Black-tailed Godwit have an orange head, neck, and chest in breeding plumage, and a dull grey-brown winter coloration.
Diet:
When it comes to their diet, Black-tailed Godwits mainly eat invertebrates, but they also consume aquatic plants in winter and during migration. Their prey includes beetles, flies, grasshoppers, dragonflies, mayflies, caterpillars, annelid worms, and molluscs. Occasionally, they also eat fish eggs, frogspawn, and tadpoles. They forage by probing in the mud or picking prey from the surface.
Abundance and Distribution:
The Black-tailed Godwit has a discontinuous breeding range stretching from Iceland to the far east of Russia. They breed in fens, lake edges, damp meadows, moorlands, and bogs, and use estuaries, swamps, and floods in winter. They are more likely to be found inland and on freshwater than the similar Bar-tailed Godwit. The world population of Black-tailed Godwits is estimated to be between 634,000 to 805,000 birds.
IUCN Red List Status:
As for their conservation status, the Black-tailed Godwit is classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. It is estimated that the world population has declined by between 14 and 33 per cent in the past 15 years. This decline is mostly related to the intensification of agriculture and habitat loss.
BLACK-TAILED GODWIT WAS LIFER # 782
Black-tailed Godwit 08 Oct 2022 Musselburgh–Levenhall Links (General) | GB-SCT
- Grandchildren and Oystercatchers at Weybourne Beach, Norfolk, England
- A Noisy Encounter with a Short-toed Treecreeper at Etang de L’Ursine, France
- Reed Bunting
- European Goldfinch
- European Greenfinch
*For the purposes of this blog series, Western Europe is the geographic region of the European continent surrounded by the North Sea, Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, including Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and other member countries of the Western European Union. (Source: CIA)
Reflections of the Natural World 