Marbled Godwit
(Limosa fedoa)

Overview

Summary

© Jukka Jantunen
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

Most Marbled Godwits breed in prairie grasslands, but a very small number breed on the James Bay coast (and a few in Alaska). The species was once more widespread and abundant but decreased dramatically during the early 1900s. The Breeding Bird Survey suggests that the Canadian prairie population has decreased relative to 1970. There is no trend information available for the small population of more northerly breeders. Loss and degradation of grassland habitats may have contributed to historic declines and remain the largest threats to the species. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

Market hunting at the turn of the century, followed by loss and degradation of grassland habitats, reduced both population size and range of Marbled Godwits (Senner and Howe 1984). Degradation and loss of both grasslands for breeding and coastal habitats for staging during migration remain the largest current threats to the species (Gratto-Trevor 2000).

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Gratto-Trevor, C.L. 2000. Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Gratto-Trevor, C.L. 2000. Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)
• Senner, S.E. and M.A. Howe. 1984. Conservation of Nearctic Shorebirds. pp. 379-421 in: Behavior of Marine Animals. Vol. 5. Burger, J. and B.L. Olla, Eds. Plenum Press, New York.