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The Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) has been identified as a focal species of management concern because it has a small total breeding population size (70,000-80,000 birds) and breeds in a few, geographically scattered locations. Within the U.S., Hudsonian Godwits breed in western and southwestern Alaska, usually where tundra or muskegs are interspersed with a few trees. Hudsonian Godwits also aggregate in a few sites in southern Chile and Argentina during the boreal winter. Whether Hudsonian Godwits use any stopovers or make a non-stop flight during their southward migration to wintering grounds is unknown. Therefore, potential threats during the migration period cannot be evaluated at present. Because they congregate in a few estuarine sites at their wintering grounds, Hudsonian Godwits are vulnerable to habitat loss and disturbance caused by coastal development.
Date: May 2009
Sources:
Brown, S., C. Hickey, B. Harrington, and R. Gill, editors. 2001. The U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan, 2nd ed. Manomet Center for Conservation Science, Manomet, MA.
Elphick, C. S., and J. Klima. 2002. Hudsonian Godwit
(Limosa haemastica)
. The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.) Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved May 2009 from http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/629.
Species Profile from NatureServe
Hudsonian Godwit Limosa haemastica
Description:Shorebird.
Life History:Breeding begins mid-May in west to early June in east (Harrison 1978). Usually 4 eggs are incubated for 22-23 days; eggs incubated by female during day, by male at night. Young precocial, tended by both parents until just before fledging (early August on Mackenzie Delta). Northward migration mainly through Texas and Louisiana and interior North America; usually reaches Texas in April; arrives in Beaufort Sea area late May-early June. Gathers in large flocks on western shores of Hudson and James bays prior to southward migration (to Maritime Provinces and New England, then southward by sea to southern South America, possibly with a stop somewhere in northern South America). Nonbreeders at Tierra del Fuego apparently derive from breeding grounds in central Canadian Arctic (Morrison and Ross 1989). Begins migration from northwestern Canada early to mid-August.
Habitat:
Breeding: Nests on grassy tundra, near water. Bogs and marshes. Near coast or river. Nests on the ground in a sparsely lined depression, in or under edge of prostrate dwarf birch or on dry top of hummock in sedge marsh.
Non-breeding: marshes, beaches, flooded fields, and tidal mudflats (AOU 1983); lake and pond shores, inlets.
NatureServe Status: Global Status: G4, Global Status Last Reviewed: 25Nov1996, Global Status Last Changed: 25Nov1996, Rounded Global Status: G4 - Apparently Secure
Other Statuses: IUCN Red List Category: LC - Least concern
