The handsome “Hudwit” — the smallest of the world's four godwit species — is an uncommon sight, spending most of its life at the extreme ends of the Americas. Its English name is a reference to this bird's remote breeding grounds in Alaska and the Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada, a region explored by Henry Hudson in the 17th century.

Limosa, the Hudsonian Godwit's genus name, derives from “limus,” the Latin word for mud, hinting at this bird's feeding habits and habitats: The “Hudwit” prefers wet meadows, bogs, and mudflats. Its species name, haemastica, has its origins in the Ancient Greek word for “bloody,” a nod to its breeding plumage. This leggy, large-bodied shorebird sports a brick-red breast and belly, its underside stippled with darker barring, while the upperparts are mottled dark-brown and gray. Nonbreeding birds are plain gray-brown above and whitish below. 

The Hudsonian Godwit's pale supercilium (eyebrow) is noticeable in all seasons. Similarly, a bird in flight will offer a glimpse of its black wing linings, a broad white wing stripe, and a black and white tail.

Like the Arctic Tern and Blackpoll Warbler, this long-legged shorebird is a master of migration, flying tens of thousands of miles each year between its breeding and nonbreeding grounds, on journeys that include long stretches of nonstop flight over open ocean.

The Hudsonian Godwit was likely named for its god-wit or whit calls. It also gives a sharper kerreck call.

Call:

Song:

Precocial Shorebirds

The Hudsonian Godwit is presumed to be socially monogamous — pairs share nest duties and parental care once their chicks hatch. Pair bonds are known to persist through re-nestings during the breeding season, and even from year to year.

Courtship behavior begins as soon as both male and female arrive on their breeding grounds among wet bogs and meadows in the boreal and arctic regions of Alaska and Canada. A courting pair will fly together in “pursuit flights,” the male performing additional solo displays, hovering mid-air with wings held high and swinging his body from side to side.

They nest on the ground in a simple scrape, located on a hummock, grass tussock, or other patch of dry ground, usually well-concealed by taller nearby vegetation, shrubs, or small trees. Nests are sometimes used year after year.

For roughly three weeks, both birds share the work of incubating a clutch of four speckled, buffy-olive eggs. The precocial chicks hatch covered in down, ready to walk and even swim almost immediately. Both parents continue to brood the chicks until they fledge. Due to the short northern summer, this species typically raises only one brood per year.

A Muddy Meal

For most of the year, the Hudsonian Godwit feeds mainly on invertebrates such as snails, worms, clams, and insects. Like the Long-billed Curlew, the Hudsonian Godwit uses its long, curved bill to probe deeply into the mud, even submerging its head in the soil in pursuit of prey.

During the summer, the bird's diet expands to include small berries and seeds, and it feeds heavily on carbohydrate-rich plant tubers during migration, twisting and pulling them loose from the earth. It also gleans food from the ground or water surface, or vegetation.

Well-Traveled Godwit

The Hudsonian Godwit has a broad, but patchy, breeding distribution stretching from western Alaska to the Hudson Bay, where it nests in peaty swamps (muskegs) or wet sedge meadows at the edges of coniferous forests. These wetlands are interspersed with shallow pools, small spruce islands, and hummocks, with drier upland areas of sedges, grasses, low shrubs, and dwarf trees. Scattered taller trees serve as look-out and display perches.

A nearly 10,000-mile flight following the breeding season takes most Hudsonian Godwits to Tierra del Fuego, where they congregate along separate coasts — Alaskan breeders on the Pacific coast, and Canadian breeders along the Atlantic. During migration and the nonbreeding season, the Hudsonian Godwit can be found on shallow tidal mudflats, deltas, and estuaries. They may also pause in rice fields, sewage lagoons, mangrove swamps, and marshes during migration.

Small numbers of this species regularly stray as far as New Zealand, the South Pacific, and Europe.

The Hudsonian Godwit's boreal breeding grounds continue to face threats from unsustainable logging, mining, oil and gas extraction, and hydroelectric development. Loss of wetlands across the Great Plains may take away important stopover sites during this shorebird's migration. Human disturbance and a developing aquaculture industry also threaten essential habitats on the nonbreeding grounds.

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Temperature increases, fire risks, and invasive species incursions unbalance and degrade delicate arctic ecosystems, which are important carbon sinks and sources of freshwater as well as essential breeding habitat for the Hudsonian Godwit and many other bird species.

Market hunting once contributed to the decline of Hudsonian Godwit numbers; although protected by U.S. law, this species may still be hunted in parts of Central and South America.

The Hudsonian Godwit is ranked as a shorebird species of high conservation concern and is on the Partners in Flight Watchlist. ABC works to conserve the habitat that birds need most throughout their migratory journeys, in conjunction with hundreds of partners throughout the Western Hemisphere.

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