Godwit
Godwit Temporal range: Barstovian–recent[1]
| |
---|---|
Black-tailed (front) and Bar-tailed godwit (back) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Charadriiformes |
Family: | Scolopacidae |
Subfamily: | Tringinae |
Genus: | Limosa Brisson, 1760 |
Type species | |
Scolopax limosa
, 1758 | |
Species | |
4, see text |
The godwits are a group of four large, long-billed, long-legged and strongly migratory waders of the bird genus Limosa. Their long bills allow them to probe deeply in the sand for aquatic worms and molluscs. In their winter range, they flock together where food is plentiful. They frequent tidal shorelines, breeding in northern climates in summer and migrating south in winter. A female bar-tailed godwit made a flight of 29,000 km (18,000 mi), flying 11,680 kilometres (7,260 mi) of it without stopping.[2] In 2020 a male bar-tailed godwit flew about 12,200 kilometres (7,600 mi) non-stop in its migration from Alaska to New Zealand, previously a record for avian non-stop flight.[3] In October 2022, a 5 month old, male bar-tailed godwit was tracked from Alaska to Tasmania, a trip that took 11 days, and recorded a non-stop flight of 8,400 miles (13,500 km).[4]
The godwits can be distinguished from the curlews by their straight or slightly upturned bills, and from the dowitchers by their longer legs. The winter plumages are fairly drab, but three species have reddish underparts when breeding. The females are appreciably larger than the males.
Godwits were once a popular British dish. Sir Thomas Browne writing in about 1682 noted that godwits "were accounted the daintiest dish in England".[5]
Taxonomy
The genus Limosa was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) as the type species.[6][7] The genus name Limosa is from Latin and means "muddy", from limus, "mud".[8] The English name "godwit" was first recorded in about 1416–17 and is believed to imitate the bird's call.[5]
The genus contains four living species:[9]
- Bar-tailed godwit, Limosa lapponica
- Black-tailed godwit, Limosa limosa
- Hudsonian godwit, Limosa haemastica
- Marbled godwit, Limosa fedoa
Fossil species
In addition, there are two or three species of
In a 2001 study comparing the ratios cerebrum to brain volumes in various dinosaur species, Hans C. E. Larsson found that more derived dinosaurs generally had proportionally more voluminous cerebrum.
Citations
- ^ "Limosa Brisson 1760 (godwit)". PBDB.
- ^ "Bird Completes Epic Flight Across the Pacific". ScienceDaily. US Geological Survey. 17 September 2007.
- ^ Boffey, Daniel (13 October 2020). "'Jet fighter' godwit breaks world record for non-stop bird flight". The Guardian.
- ^ "An Incredible Bird Was Tracked As It Made A Cross-Globe Journey From Alaska To Tasmania (video)". The Weather Channel. 27 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
- ^ a b "Godwit". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Divisio Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. Vol. 1, p. 48, Vol. 5, p. 261.
- ^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 263.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Buttonquail, plovers, seedsnipe, sandpipers". World Bird List Version 9.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Archived from the original on 21 December 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
- PMID 15329156.
- ^ "Allometric Comparison", in Larsson (2001). p. 27.
- ^ a b c "Allometric Comparison", in Larsson (2001). p. 30.
General sources
- Gill, R. E. Jr.; Piersma, T.; Hufford, G.; Servranckx, R.; Riegen, A. (2005). "Crossing the ultimate ecological barrier: evidence for an 11,000-km-long non-stop flight from Alaska to New Zealand and Eastern Australia by Bar-tailed Godwits". Condor. 107: 1–20. .
- Larsson, H. C. E. 2001. Endocranial anatomy of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) and its implications for theropod brain evolution. pp. 19–33. In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Tanke, D. H., Carpenter, K., Skrepnick, M. W. (eds.). Indiana University Press.
- Olson, Storrs L. (1985): Section X.D.2.b. "Scolopacidae". In: Farner, D.S.; King, J.R. & Parkes, Kenneth C. (eds.): Avian Biology 8: 174–175. Academic Press, New York.