Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa)

Sighting Ref :

IB97180

Sighting Date :

06 Apr 17

Common Name :

Black-tailed Godwit

Scientific Name :

Limosa limosa

Location :

Clonakilty

County :

Cork

Number Seen :

Principal Observer(s) :

Peter Wolstenholme Not Specified

Reported By :

Not Specified

Comments :

Sunday, 2nd of April. White's Marsh. Thank you for the additional photos, it is great that you have a couple more that show parts of the bird that are not visible in the first photo you sent. It is very difficult to reach a definitive conclusion on the subspecific identity of this Black-tailed Godwit, but on the basis that it appears to be an adult that has completed its moult into breeding plumage, it has paler and more orange 'summer' colour than typical islandica, and the wing coverts/tertials are mostly if not entirely plain, it does indeed look more like a breeding plumaged male limosa than an islandica. However, there are many poorly understood and complex aspects to field identification of out-of-range Black-tailed Godwit races, so ideally, documentation should be comprehensive and should enable more subtle aspects of structure, particularly relative bill-length and leg-length to be established. Also, good photographs of the open wing could be helpful in determining extent of moult. Since limosa and islandica apparently winter side-by-side as close as south Portugal it is not hard to imagine that the odd limosa might come up this far with islandica that are returning to in Iceland, but I am not aware of any ever having been detected in Ireland, the only records of limosa being old, based on measurements of randomly collected specimens. Even these are open to question however, since it is possible that the birds were wrongly sexed, in which case the measurements would put them within the range of islandica. I urge you to secure more photographs of this bird, if possible standing on level ground without long grass, alongside other Black-tailed Godwits. Maybe you could persuade Richard Mills to help you document it, he has always had a soft spot for Black-tailed Godwits! Even if it turns out not to be a limosa, better photos will surely all contribute to our understanding of this interesting identification subject! Killian Mullarney

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