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  Profile

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  In flight

Cranes & Waders

Marbled Godwit

Limosa fedoa

• uncommon
• 40 km/h
• Vulnerable

Long upturned bill probing mudflats for buried worms. Big, cinnamon, and content.

Population

~270,000 mature individuals (Partners in Flight 2023 estimate, cited by BirdLife/IUCN 2024 assessment)

Habitat

Breeds on northern Great Plains grasslands and prairie wetlands, nesting on the ground in short grass; winters on coastal shorelines, estuaries, tidal mudflats, marshes, and beaches

Fun fact

The Marbled Godwit's long, slightly upturned, two-toned pink-and-black bill lets it probe deep into mud for invertebrates, and during migration it switches almost exclusively to digging up plant tubers with the same tool.

Range

Breeds mainly in the northern Great Plains of the north-central US and south-central Canada, with small disjunct populations in southwestern James Bay (Ontario) and on the Alaska Peninsula; winters along the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts of the US, Mexico, and Central America (south to Panama), concentrated in California and northwest Mexico

Diet

Aquatic invertebrates — insects, marine worms, and crustaceans — probed from mud, sand, and shallow water with its long bill; also eats plant tubers (clipped with its upturned bill), especially during migration stopovers

Size

0.45 m

Wingspan

0.79 m

Lifespan

13 years