Marbled Godwits are common migrants and winter visitors to our shores from breeding grounds in the interior of Canada and the northern prairies of the US. They look very similar year round, but the dark bars on the underparts
of this individual indicate it is an adult molting into winter plumage.
The long bill has a prehensile tip for grabbing worms deep in the mud.
There are four godwits in the genus Limosa. The Marbled Godwit is the largest of the four. Two subspecies are recognized differing in size. This is probably nominate L. f. fedoa. A smaller race, Limosa fedoa beringiae, breeds in Alaska and winters along the northwest coast as far south as northern California, but its status here is not certain. The two races overlap in weight.
Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LZ5 | Nikon FieldScope 3 | 30X WA | hand-held (no adapter)