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The books are listed in order of publication date with the most recent at the top.

Other wader pages

Books about waders

Godwits

In the UK

Black-tailed Godwit
Limosa limosa

Bar-tailed Godwit
Limosa lapponica

Rare UK visitor

Hudsonian Godwit
Limosa haemastica

Other godwit species

Marbled Godwit
Limosa fedoa

Godwits: Long-haul Champions

Keith Woodley

2009

"Godwits: Long-haul champions, an enchanting, wonderfully illustrated book by shorebird expert Keith Woodley, tells the miraculous story of the godwits and their migrations - why and how they do it. It follows the birds on their intrepid journeys, examining the places they visit, be it an estuary in northern New Zealand, a mudflat on the Chinese-North Korean border, or a tundra nesting site in Alaska. Woodley, respected godwit expert and manager of the Miranda Shorebird Centre, details the amazing changes these birds undergo before their departure - from moulting into new plumage, to doubling their weight and shrinking non-essential body organs - as well as outlines their array of innate skills in weather prediction and global navigation."

International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Black-tailed Godwit Limosa l. limosa & L. l. islandica

Compiled by Flemming Pagh Jensen, Arnaud Béchet and Eddy Wymenga

AEWA

2008

Prepared and printed with funding from Vogelbescherming Nederland (BirdLife Netherlands). This AEWA SSAP is based on the EU Management Plan for the Black-tailed Godwit of 2007, which was updated with newly available information and extended to flyway scale.

From the executive summary: "The Black-tailed Godwit has a widespread but disjunct distribution in the Western Palearctic. Two subspecies occur in this area; islandica which breeds mainly in Iceland and limosa with a main breeding range from The Netherlands to Russia. The populations of both subspecies are migratory and have separated migration systems. In the European part of the migration system, subspecies can mix. The species increased during the 20th century throughout the Western Palearctic but while the islandica population has continued to increase in numbers and expanded its breeding range, nominate limosa's has shown range contraction and major declines in most key breeding areas during the last decades. Today the islandica population numbers c.25,000 pairs while the nominate population of the Western Palearctic totals c.110,000 pairs. About 50% of the nominate population breeds in The Netherlands. Due to the continuing decline of nominate Black-tailed Godwits, its status on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species was changes in 2006 from 'Least Concern' to 'Near Threatened'."

Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds

Scott Weidensaul

1999

"Scott Weidensaul follows hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, Bar-tailed Godwits that hitchhike on gale winds 7,000 miles nonstop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and the Myriad Songbirds whose numbers have dwindled so dramatically in recent years."

Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit project 1993

G.J. Gerritsen & N.M. Groen

Working Group International Waterbird and Wetland Research

1995