Bar-tailed Godwit
Limosa lapponica
Length 38-42cm

Superficially similar in outline to black-tailed godwit but with more dumpy appearance. Easily told in flight in all plumages by uniformly dark wings and white rump grading to narrow-barred tail. Passage migrant and winter visitor from high Arctic breeding grounds. Juvenile and adult in winter have rather curlew-like plumages, grey-brown above and pale below; upperparts more strongly marked in juvenile birds. Breeding plumage birds, with brick-red on head, neck and underparts, sometimes seen in late spring or early autumn. Locally common on estuaries and coastal grassland, mainly from September to April.