Godwit Flyby

It was cloudy today, and even hinted with rain, but unfortunately nothing. The sky was just teasing us. We desperately need it, with now water restrictions and a total fire ban.

This is a bar-tailed Godwit, which is the most common Arctic migrant in NZ. It is a large long-legged wader, predominantly brown above, pale below, with a long tapering and slightly bent bi-coloured bill, pink at the base and black towards the tip.

Godwits hold cultural significance for many New Zealanders. For Maori they were birds of mystery and were believed to accompany spirits of the departed, bu they were also a source of food.

They are the most numerous tundra-breeding shorebird species to occur in NZ with around 90,000 here each year. Nearly all NZ Godwits are from a subspecies that breed in Western Alaska.  Following the breeding season, birds generally begin arriving from early September after a non-stop 8 or 9 day flight from Alaska. They depart NZ from early March, heading to refuelling sites around the Yellow Sea. They do not breed until their fourth year so each southern winter there are hundreds of non breeding birds which remain in New Zealand.