Limosa

Limosa is a genus of large shorebirds in the family Scolopacidae, commonly known as godwits. It currently contains two living species: Limosa limosa, the black-tailed godwit, and Limosa haemastica, the Hudsonian godwit. The genus name Limosa is from Latin limosa, meaning muddy, a nod to the birds’ typical wetland habitats, and the species epithet limosa in Limosa limosa shares that root.

Description and biology

Limosa godwits are long-legged, long-billed waders with slender bodies and a relatively straight or slightly upturned bill used to probe soft mud for invertebrates. Breeding plumage in many populations is mottled brown with rufous tones, while non-breeding plumage tends to be more subdued gray-brown. They are migratory, undertaking long-distance journeys between temperate breeding grounds and more southerly wintering areas.

Distribution and habitat

The black-tailed godwit (L. limosa) breeds across boreal Europe and Asia and winters in Africa, southern Europe, and parts of Asia and the Middle East, occupying mudflats, salt marshes, and shallow wetlands during both breeding and wintering seasons. The Hudsonian godwit (L. haemastica) breeds in Arctic North America and migrates to South America and the Caribbean for the winter, also favoring wetland habitats such as mudflats and marshes along migration routes and at wintering sites.

Ecology and conservation

Limosa species feed primarily on invertebrates—including bivalves, crustaceans, and insect larvae—gleaned by probing the mud with their long bills. Populations are influenced by the availability of coastal and inland wetlands; habitat loss, wetland drainage, and climate-change–driven changes pose conservation concerns for some populations, while others remain relatively stable.

See also

Limosa as a Latin-derived epithet in taxonomy and related wader species.