When I was starting Birding in my early teens, I began by thinking that the Godwits would be difficult to identify when feeding on the coast, when I looked at the poor field guides I had in those days. In reality, Bar-tailed Godwit and Black-tailed Godwit are two very different species.
Bar-tailed Godwit: They appear to have pale grey upperparts due to the nice pale edgings to all the feathers and a slightly buffy wash to the breast. In their Summer plumage, they have a pale brick-red breast which continues down to the vent and this colouration is paler than the darker brick-red seen on the breasts of Black-tailed Godwits
Bar-tailed Godwit: It's not often to see them feeding close to the Avocet hide, so this was a good opportunity to get some close photos
One of the great things about the Brownsea Avocet hide is sometimes Waders feed really close to the hide and are generally unconcerned by the people in the hide, except when the windows are opened or closed. This coupled with some nice light, ignoring the harsher early morning light on some days, can produce some nice photographs.
Bar-tailed Godwit: Both species are able to put their whole head in the water to get to some food
Bar-tailed Godwits have a much paler upperpart colouration which is amplified by the nice pale edgings to all the feathers. They are smaller than Black-tailed Godwits and when they are seen standing out of the water, they look to me like their legs are too short for their body. They prefer to feed on sandier areas in Poole Harbour with the Shore Road area by Sandbanks being their favourite area, where a high Winter count will be around one hundred and fifty individuals. When they turn up at Studland, they are on the sandier parts of the bay. On the high tide, they roost on Brownsea, but generally they prefer to roost up with the Curlews rather than their namesakes.
Surprisingly I find that the identification problem with roosting Bar-tailed Godwits on Brownsea isn't Black-tailed Godwit: it's Grey Plover. That seems daft when first said, as Grey Plovers are long-legged, dumpy Waders with obvious short bills, that would not be confused when feeding on a mudflat.
Grey Plover: I've not got a good photo of a Winter Grey Plover, so this is the similar, but paler-looking American subspecies from Hobson Beach Park, California (20 Nov 14)
Bar-tailed Godwits and Grey Plover often roost together on Brownsea at the back of the lagoon. When roosting, they often have their bills tucked into the backs as they sleep, so the bill length doesn't immediately eliminate the other species and they often seem to roost at the most awkward angle to the hide to make their immediate identification a bit harder. They are a similar body size and leg length and have similar pale grey, scaly upperparts. It doesn't take long to separate the two species, but it's not as easy as separating the two Godwit species.
Black-tailed Godwit: In their Winter plumage (right), they have more uniform darker-grey upperparts than Bar-tailed Godwits. As they moult into their Summer plumage, they show a darker brick-red breast, a paler belly, with chestnut and blackish-centred feathers on the upperparts
This is the very common Godwit species in Poole Harbour, with a new record count of over five thousand individuals recorded in the Winter of 2025-26. Black-tailed Godwits are larger than Bar-tailed Godwits, with a longer bill and noticeably longer legs. They have more uniform darker-grey upperparts than Bar-tailed Godwits in their Winter plumage. As they moult into their Summer plumage, they have a darker brick-red breast, a paler belly, with chestnut and blackish-centred feathers, which gives a darker mottled appearance to the upperparts. They are normally found on the open mudflats throughout Poole Harbour, with large flocks roosting up and feeding on the Brownsea lagoon on the higher tides.
Black-tailed Godwit: This one has just found its next meal
It is easy to separate the two Godwit species in flight, as Black-tailed Godwits having a long broad white bar down the centre of the wing and a white base to a black tail, whereas Bar-tailed Godwits have a fairly uniform upperwings, with only a faint whitish wing stripe, a white rump and a finely barred tail.
