bar-tailed godwit @ SBWR - 04Oct2015

Another good spot by a chap with a scope at the main hide this afternoon. It took the rest of those coming after him some time before we could get a confirmation that this was a bar-tailed godwit. The slightly upturned bill with a good portion of it pink leaving the last bit much darker together with the legs being rather dark were not sufficient indicators. Good thing AO and SR was around to confirm a well timed pictured showing the bars on the tail taken by SS. There were at least two or three black-tailed godwits elsewhere in the flock amongst the many common redshanks, greenshanks, plovers and whimbrels (and not forgetting the lone eurasian curlew).

The bars marking the tail of the bar-tailed godwit were very difficult to spot as it did a good job of hiding its tail below its primaries. This godwit spent most of the afternoon probing for food at the edge of the water instead of in deeper water like the black-taileds. The slowmo extracts show the bird exposing its bar-tail.

Update 26Oct2015 : Bar-tailed Godwit named NZ Bird of the Year :
http://forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/publications/media-release/bar-tailed-godwit-kuaka-crowned-bird-the-year 
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/nz-bird-of-the-year-bar-tailed-godwit-2015102609#axzz3pgQbXd00

 bar tailed godwit @ SBWR - 04Oct2015 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Find out more about the Bar-Tailed Godwit :
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sowb/casestudy/22
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3005
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar-tailed_godwit
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/shorebirds/barg.php
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070913-longest-flight.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100609102052.htm
http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/09/14/140467059/the-toughest-little-bird-youve-never-heard-of
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/map/9184/bar-tailed-godwits-migration-route
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/bar-tailed-godwit
http://www.3news.co.nz/environmentsci/godwits-long-migration-heralds-spring-2011091416#axzz3pgQbXd00