Order) Charadriiformes
Family) Scolopacidae
Species) Native Bird
Conservation Status) Declining
Length) 39 cm (male); 41 cm (female)
Weight) 275-400 g (male); 325-600 g (female)
Other Names) barwit, bartailed godwit, bar tailed godwit, Kuaka
Threats) Habitat loss
Identification
The Godwit is a migrant from Alaska, they arrive in NZ and can be found on Waiheke from September – March located at Blackpool.
The bar-tailed godwit is the most common Arctic migrant in New Zealand. It is a large long-legged wader, predominantly brown above, pale below, with a long tapering and slightly upturned bi-coloured bill, pink at the base and black towards the tip.
Males are markedly smaller with shorter bills than females.
Godwits hold cultural significance for many New Zealanders. For Maori they were birds of mystery, (‘Kua kite te kohanga kuaka? Who has seen the nest of the kuaka?’) and were believed to accompany spirits of the departed.
Godwits perform the longest nonstop flight of any non-seabird, and, unlike a seabird, there is no chance of an inflight snack.
Migration departures are staggered through March, in flocks varying between less than ten birds to over a hundred. Individual birds have their own departure schedule and will aim to leave within the same 3-4 day window each year. Time of departure from New Zealand is determined by a bird’s destination: birds leaving in early March breed in more southern areas of western Alaska while birds leaving in late March breed north of the Brooks Range.
Birds tracked by satellite on their 11,000-12,000 km flights to New Zealand took 8-9 days, with an average flight speed of 56 kph.
Bar-tailed godwits forage over the intertidal zone at low tide – either individually dispersed or in loose formations. They congregate in flocks at high tide roosts, but can be extremely wary birds, often difficult to closely approach
Godwits most commonly call in flight, usually a-wik,a-wik,a-wik. For most of their time in New Zealand they are usually silent on the ground, but immediately before migration departures there is a notable increase in both frequency and volume of calls from individuals that are about to leave.
Breeding
breeding season, birds generally begin arriving from early September, usually after a non-stop 8-9 days flight. They begin departing on northern migration from early March, heading for refuelling sites around the Yellow Sea. They do not breed until their third or fourth year, so each southern winter there are hundreds of non-breeding birds remaining in New Zealand.
Eastern bar-tailed godwits breed on upland and coastal tundra on the western rim of Alaska, from the coast to up to 200 km inland, from the Gulf of Alaska to North Slope.
A clutch of four eggs is laid in a shallow bowl often lined with lichen. Each egg is approximately 11% of a female’s body mass. With a fully developed and mobile chicks at hatching.
Juveniles arrive in New Zealand after their first trans-Pacific flight when barely four months old.
Food
On non-breeding grounds bar-tailed godwits mainly eat polychaetes (probably over 70% of diet) but also small bivalves and crustaceans. They also forage in wet pasture for terrestrial invertebrates.
On breeding grounds, they consume cranefly larvae and other invertebrates, and some berries, particularly soon after arrival.
Waiheke Locations
Blackpool Beach – This is where i have mainly seen them and have photographed
Bar tail Godwits are flying birds they are not just on Waiheke, they can be found in other areas of New Zealand. these are just areas I’ve spotted them on Waiheke and photographed.
Gallery
