Bar-tailed Godwit

Identification

Non-breeding:  This plumage is grey-brown on the head, neck and upperparts.  There is a dark centre and lighter edge to the feather giving a slightly streaked look.  The underparts are pale buff.  The bill is bi-coloured with pink at the base and blending to black at the tip. The supercilium is white and with  the dark eye-stripe giving rise to an obvious feature for identification.  The legs and feet are dark grey. 

Breeding:  The adults take on a rich chestnut-red plumage over the neck, shoulders and underparts.  The upperparts are red-brown with a darker centre to the feathers giving a streaked look.  The black barring on the white of the rump seems to stand out in the breeding plumage.  The bill is bicoloured with pink at the base and blending to black at the tip; the female has a longer bill. 

Juvenile:  Similar to adult non-breeding plumage, though seem to have a more strongly streak appearance. 

Breeding plumage

Confusing Species

Black-tailed Godwit: Very similar to the Bar-tailed Godwit in non-breeding plumage.  The plumage is less streaked.  The bicoloured bill is straight.  Appears to be of a slighter build and tends to be feeding at high tide whilst the Bar-tailed Godwits rest.

In all plumages, flight-pattern distinctive: from above shows white wing-bar, black tail, and white band across lower rump and uppertail-coverts; from below underwing white with narrow black border.

Asian Dowitcher: This is a very rare visitor to Australia, but it is worth looking out for in a flock of Bar-tails.  It is slightly smaller with a straight black bill.  It stands with its bill pointing downwards like a snipe.

The Bar-tailed Godwit primarily breeds Russia and north-west Alaska. In the East Asian Australaisan Flyway, Bar-tailed Godwits are a common passage migrant through China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula. On southward migration, ssp. baueri has been recorded undertaking non-stop flights (>10,000km) across the Pacific to their non-breeding grounds in Moreton Bay. (see here)  The species has also been recorded in south-east China, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Pacific Islands . Approximately 88 percent of the flyway population spend the non-breeding season in Australia. When in Australia, Bar-tailed Godwits have been recorded in the coastal areas of all Australian states. The species is widespread in the Torres Strait and along the east and south-east coasts of Queensland, NSW and Victoria, including the offshore islands.

Bar-tailed Godwit QWSG Satellite tracking

QWSG Satellite tracking – Bar-tailed Godwit – Newsletter 118, Page 4

References

1. BirdLife Australia (2023). Bar-tailed Godwit. [Text before updates sourced from: Marchant, S. et al (eds) 1990-2006 Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds.Volume 1 to 7.] Birdlife Australia. Birdlife Australia. Source: https://hanzab.birdlife.org.au/species/bar-tailed-godwit/ Accessed: April 12, 2026 Time Zone: +10:00
2. McCaffery, B. J. and R. E. Gill (2020). Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.batgod.01
3. eBird. 2021. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Available:  http://www.ebird.org (Accessed: Date 12/4/2026)
4. Rogers A, Fuller RA & Amano T (2023) Australia’s migratory shorebirds: Trends and prospects. Report to the National Environmental Science Program. University of Queensland, Brisbane.
5. Driessen, J., Kidd, L. R., Weller, D. R., Purnell, C., Maguire, G., Jaensch, R., and LeClair, S. M. (2025). Australian National Directory of Important Migratory Shorebird Habitat. Report for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. BirdLife Australia, Melbourne.
6. van Swinderen, L., Hansen, B.D., Fuller, R.A., Watkins, D., Rogers, D.I., Clemens, R.S., Newman, M., Woehler, E.J., Weller, D.R. and LeClair, S. (2025). Revision of the East Asian – Australasian Flyway Population Estimates for 37 listed Migratory Shorebird Species. Report for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. BirdLife Australia, Melbourne.
7. Geering, Andrew, Lindsay Agnew, and Sandra Harding, eds. Shorebirds of Australia. Csiro Publishing, 2007.
8. https://sproggies63.github.io/birding_apps/