Limosa

Marbled godwit Limosa fedoa, photographed by Matthew.

Belongs within: Scolopacidae.

Limosa, the godwits, is a genus of long-legged shore birds with long, slightly upcurved bills. The bill has a flexible tip and is used to probe for invertebrates on tidal flats. Summer plumage is more or less suffused with reddish coloration, particularly on the face, neck and breast.

<==Limosa Brisson 1760 [incl. Vetola Mathews 1913; Limosini] CC10
    |  i. s.: L. rufa C01
    |--L. lapponica (Linnaeus 1758) JT12, CC10 [=Scolopax lapponica CC10, *Vetola lapponica CC10]
    |    |--L. l. lapponica CC10
    |    `--L. l. baueri Naumann 1836 (see below for synonymy) CC10
    `--+--*L. limosa (Linnaeus 1758) CC10, JT12, CC10 [=Scolopax limosa CC10]
       |    |--L. l. limosa CC10
       |    |--L. l. islandica Brehm 1831 CC10
       |    `--L. l. melanuroides Gould 1846 CC10
       `--+--L. fedoa JT12
          `--L. haemastica (Linnaeus 1758) JT12, CC10 [=Scolopax haemastica CC10, Vetola haemastica CC10]

Limosa lapponica baueri Naumann 1836 [incl. L. brevipes Sharpe 1896, L. foxii Peale 1848, L. lapponica var. novaezealandiae Gray 1845, Gallinago punctata Ellman 1861] CC10

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[CC10] Checklist Committee (OSNZ). 2010. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica 4^th ed. Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Te Papa Press: Wellington.

[C01] Csiki, E. 1901. Utivázlat [Reiseskizze]. In: Horváth, G. (ed.) Zichy Jenő Gróf Harmadik Ázsiai Utazása [Dritte Asiatische Forschungsreise des Grafen Eugen Zichy] vol. 2. Zichy Jenő Gróf Harmadik Ázsiai Utazásának Állattani Eredményei [Zoologische Ergebnisse der Dritten Asiatischen Forschungsreise des Grafen Eugen Zichy] pp. xii–xli. Victor Hornyánszky: Budapest, and Karl W. Hierseman: Leipzig.

[JT12] Jetz, W., G. H. Thomas, J. B. Joy, K. Hartmann & A. Ø. Mooers. 2012. The global diversity of birds in space and time. Nature 491: 444–448.

Last updated: 10 August 2019.