Limosa lapponica
Silhouette: Alexandre Vong · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica) is a large and strongly migratory wader in the family Scolopacidae, which feeds on bristle-worms and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries. It has distinctive red breeding plumage, long legs, and a long upturned bill. Bar-tailed godwits breed on Arctic coasts and tundra from Scandinavia to Alaska, and overwinter on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of Australia and New Zealand. The migration of the subspecies Limosa lapponica baueri across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird, and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal. The round-trip migration for this subspecies is over 29,000 km (18,020 mi).
The bar-tailed godwit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Scolopax limosa. It is now placed with three other godwits in the genus Limosa that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The genus name Limosa is from Latin and means "muddy", from limus, "mud", referring to its preferred habitat. The specific name lapponica... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Cape Range | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Abel Tasman National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 5 | Ningaloo Marine Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Noosa National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Rottnest Island | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 8 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 9 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 10 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 11 | Royal National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 12 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 13 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 14 | Wilsons Promontory National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 15 | Hortobágy National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 16 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 17 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 18 | Rakiura National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 19 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 20 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 21 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ōtorohanga Kiwi House | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Bar-tailed Godwit sighting in Cape Range on a given day, based on 37 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 37th most-seen of the 84 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October and November
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Bar-tailed Godwit in Cape Range on a given day, against under 5% in July, the lowest month. Those are among Cape Range's driest months, with almost no rain against 55 mm in June. February has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bar-tailed Godwit sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 21
Of the 21 parks where we can rate Bar-tailed Godwit sightings, Cape Range ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in West Coast National Park (South Africa, about 40%) and Wadden Sea National Park (Germany, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bar-tailed Godwit is recorded against all the birds logged in Cape Range (37 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
