Marbled Godwit

About the Marbled Godwit

The Marbled Godwit is the big cinnamon shorebird of the Texas coast - one of the largest sandpipers in North America, warm buffy-brown and intricately marbled above, with an outrageous bill: very long, slightly upswept, pink at the base and dark at the tip.

That bill is a precision instrument. Godwits wade the flats and probe deep, often plunging the whole bill and even their face below the surface, feeling for worms, small clams, and crustaceans no surface-picking bird can reach. Feeding flocks work methodically, like a line of sewing machines.

Marbled Godwits breed on northern prairie grasslands, then spend the long non-breeding season on coastal flats - and the Texas coast is one of their strongholds, with flocks from Bolivar to the Laguna Madre from late summer through spring.

Standing in a mixed shorebird flock, the godwit is the easy anchor point: bigger than the willets, browner than everything, with that two-toned upcurved bill settling any doubt. A signature bird of a Texas winter beach.