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Bar-tailed godwits predominantly forage on soft intertidal substrates but may also be found probing in wet pasture. Other good sites include Rangaunu, Whangarei, Tauranga, Ohiwa, Kawhia, Porongahau, Foxton Beach, Tasman and Golden Bays, Avon-Heathcote, Blueskin Bay, and Invercargill Estuary/Awarua Bay. They are widely distributed around the country and some birds may occur on almost any harbour or estuary, although the bulk of the population occur at larger sites: Parengarenga, Kaipara, Manukau, Firth of Thames, and Farewell Spit. Whimbrels are slightly darker, with striped heads and down-curved bills.Įastern bar-tailed godwits breed in western Alaska and migrate to New Zealand and eastern Australia. The bill is slightly upturned in Hudsonian godwit, but is straight in black-tailed godwit. Similar species: black-tailed godwit and Hudsonian godwit are both smoother grey-brown on the back, have prominent white-and-black wingbars, and a white rump contrasting with their black tail. 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. Voice: godwits most commonly call in flight, usually a-wik,a-wik,a-wik. Juveniles that have recently arrived in New Zealand are recognisable by the broader buff margins to their scapular and back feathers, making them appear more mottled than adults this plumage is rapidly moulted and replaced. Females are considerably less colourful, becoming strongly streaked and barred on neck, breast and flanks, sometimes with pale rufous wash. In breeding plumage most males undergo a complete transformation, becoming bright rufous on the head, neck, breast and belly, with strongly contrasting upperparts – dark feathers with buff fringes and notches. In flight uniform colour and pattern, wing stripe often indistinct feet partly project beyond tail.
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Underparts pale with grey-brown wash and fine streaking on neck and flanks. In non-breeding plumage both sexes alike: crown and hind neck pale brown with dark streaks scapulars and coverts brown with dark centres and pale fringes giving streaked appearance lower back, rump and tail barred with brown. While some overlap in size and bill-length does occur, most of the time sexes can be separated in the field. Males are markedly smaller with shorter bills than females. 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. The bar-tailed godwit is the most common Arctic migrant in New Zealand. 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.
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They begin departing on northern migration from early March, heading for refuelling sites around the Yellow Sea. Following the breeding season, birds generally begin arriving from early September, usually after a non-stop 8-9 days flight. They are relatively common at many harbours and estuaries around the country. Virtually all New Zealand birds are from the baueri subspecies breeding in western Alaska. They are the most numerous tundra-breeding shorebird species to occur in New Zealand, with around 75,000 here each year. 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 but they were also a source of food. Godwits hold cultural significance for many New Zealanders. They perform the longest nonstop flights of any non-seabird, and, unlike a seabird, there is no chance of an inflight snack. But there is nothing nondescript about the migrations of bar-tailed godwits. Their brown and grey plumage echoes the intertidal mudflats where they forage, and for much of their time in New Zealand they are relatively nondescript birds.