Black-tailed Godwit, in Portugal

Here are half a dozen images of a Black-tailed Godwit to kick off this sensationally elegant bird’s gallery here, all captured at the EVOA Tagus Estuary Birdwatching and Conservation Area near Lisbon in October 2025.

Godwit is from the Old English for ‘good creature’; its Latin name, Limosa limosa, means ‘muddy, muddy’. Both work for this graceful if, yes, muddy bird, but it’s the former that fits better with a study released last January which found that Black-tailed Godwits connect more than 1,000 wetlands across Europe and Africa.

The study, ‘Site-level connectivity identified from multiple sources of movement data to inform conservation of a migratory bird’, was published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology and based on research conducted by the Centre for Environmental and Ecological Changes at the Faculty of Sciences in Lisbon, the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies at the University of Aveiro, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Birdlife International summarises:

The research “reveals that this migratory species links over a thousand wetlands across Northern and Southern Europe and West Africa. Some of these wetland hotspots are literal transportation hubs for the godwits but also currently show a lack of protection and recognition in restoration works.

The international team of over 40 researchers compiled the movements of 10,000 individual godwits across Europe and Africa and mapped the connections between the wetlands through the birds’ migration paths. The data of the resulting map helped the team to identify 49 hotspot wetland sites. One of the many key hubs is the Tagus Estuary, near Lisbon, Portugal. Godwits passing through Tagus visit more than 200 sites across 16 countries, often traveling over 3000km to destinations such as Iceland or Guinea-Bissau.

“This sort of information is invaluable as it shows that messing up our backyard can have implications for wildlife from far-flung places,” says Martin Beal, lead author of the study at CE3C – Centre for Environmental and Ecological Changes at the Faculty of Sciences in Lisbon, Portugal.

You can download the study here.

Four more images below, with the bird showing varying degrees of muddiness.

Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa) in brief (with assist from WordPress AI but double-checked by me at Birds of the World and Wikipedia):

• Size: Approximately 37–42 cm (15–17 in) in length, with a wingspan of 70–75 cm (28–30 in).
• Diet: Omnivorous; primarily feeds on invertebrates such as insects, worms, and crustaceans, often foraging in mudflats and wetlands.
• Habitat: Prefers wetlands, marshes, mudflats, and coastal areas for breeding and foraging, often found in grasslands during migration.
• Physical Description: Long, straight bill; long legs; reddish-brown plumage with a distinguishable black tail; neck and underparts are pale with streaks.
• Breeding: Nests on the ground in wetlands; typically lays 3-5 eggs in a well-concealed scrape.
• Conservation Status: Currently listed as Near Threatened due to habitat loss and degradation.
• Unique Behaviors: Known for its distinctive foraging style, probing in mud with its long bill; displays strong migratory patterns.
• Range and Migration: Breeds across northern and central Europe and parts of Asia; migrates to southern Europe and Africa for wintering.

Links for further reference:

• Black-tailed Godwit at Birds of the World
• Black-tailed Godwit at BirdLife DataZone
• Black-tailed Godwit at eBird
• Black-tailed Godwit at Avibase
• Black-tailed Godwit at Wikipedia
• Black-tailed Godwit at iNaturalist

News, research and academic articles:

• Site-level connectivity identified from multiple sources of movement data to inform conservation of a migratory bird. Journal of Applied Ecology, 62, 303–316. 

Photos from 4 October 2025. Post last updated on 27 December 2025.

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Added to the Bird of the Week post hosted by I.J on his site Don’t Hold Your Breath which I enjoy checking in with daily.