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Marbled Godwit
Limosa fedoa
Family: SCOLOPACIDAE
Order: Charadriiformes
Spanish Common Name: Aguja canela, Picopando canelo, Aguja moteado, Zarapito moteado
French Common Name: Barge marbrée
(c) Ron Wolf |
Courtesy Kenn Kaufman |
Annual Population Indices |
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Conservation Status
Global Population: 172,500
Continental Population: 171,500
Watchlist Status: 
Audubon State of the Birds Status: Moderate population declines and small population size
Immense flocks of Marbled Godwits once paraded down the Atlantic seaboard each autumn. Today, that parade is a thin line. Like the Hudsonian Godwit, this large, conspicuous sandpiper is remarkable for its pre-migration diet of aquatic plant tubers in the fall. "Marbled" refers to the extensive speckled pattern of black and beige across the godwit's upper parts.
Range & Distribution
Most Marbled Godwits breed on the Great Plains of North America. Smaller populations breed along the southern shores of Canada's Saint James Bay and the western end of the Alaska Peninsula. This shorebird winters coastally, from the Carolinas to southern Florida, and on the Gulf Coast from western Louisiana to the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. On the Pacific Coast, the Marbled Godwit ranges from central California through Costa Rica.
A legend for the range map to the right can be found here.
Population Status & Trends
With market hunting restricted in North America, Marbled Godwit populations stabilized, though recent Breeding Bird Surveys indicate small declines. Surveys at Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina, recorded a decline of about 30% between 1988 and 2002. These negative population trends, along with a small population size, and threats on the breeding and wintering grounds, have prompted the Canadian and U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plans to consider the Marbled Godwit a "species of high concern." The Marbled Godwit is a "species of conservation concern" in South Carolina, a "monitoring species" in Montana, and a "conservation priority" in North Dakota, where this sandpiper breeds at its highest densities.
An explanation of the Annual Indices graph displayed to the right can be found here.
Conservation Issues & Efforts
Requiring large territories in a vanishing landscape, the Marbled Godwit has adapted to agricultural development and can breed on range lands, providing controlled burns and grazing are timed to accommodate nesting. The invasion of exotic species, fire suppression, draining of seasonal wetlands, highway expansion, and conversion of shortgrass prairie to cropland all continue to degrade the godwit's breeding habitat. Wintering and migrating habitats are also threatened. The San Francisco Bay area, where an estimated 10% of all Marbled Godwits stop in spring, has lost 85% of its tidal marshes.
South Carolina's Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plan calls for regular surveys for the Marbled Godwit and the integrated management of wetlands for waterfowl and shorebirds. The Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center lists many management practices that can benefit the Marbled Godwit during breeding, including maintaining wetlands, which this species often uses in summer; preserving large tracks of continuous habitat; and encouraging regular grazing, mowing, and burning during the appropriate season.
What You Can Do
Pets, children, and hikers can disturb shorebirds by approaching too closely. Along beaches or marshes, respect the Marbled Godwits' natural caution, and give them room to forage and rest.
Join a local conservation group to limit development in the Northern Plains grasslands.
If you own suitable habitat, conservation easements, especially with controlled burns and managed grazing, can be an effective tool for managing land to benefit Marbled Godwits.
For more actions you can take, including Audubon activities, please visit our resources page.
For More Information
References
Donaldson, G. M., et al. Canadian Shorebird Conservation Plan. Canadian Wildlife Service. Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Ottawa, Ontario. 2000.
Gratto-Trevor, C. L. 2000. Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa). In The Birds of North America, No. 492 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.
Kaufman, Kenn. 1996. Lives of North American Birds. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.
Migratory Shorebird Guild, Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plan - 2005. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. 5 Pages.
Sibley, David Allen. 2000. The Sibley Guide to Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
U. S. Shorebird Conservation Plan. 2004. High Priority Shorebirds – 2004. Unpublished Report, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, MBSP 4107, Arlington, VA 22203. 5 pages.
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