My parents purchased this original color rendition of a Hudsonian Godwit from the artist, Dr. Walter Breckenridge, one of my early ornithologist mentors and former curator of the Ford Bell Museum of Natural History on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. It now hangs in my home. Pictured top-to-bottom to the left are an immature Hudsonian Godwit, semi-palmated plover and a sanderling. Ralph LaPlant Photo

The Hudsonian Godwit is our only shorebird with an upturned bill and a tail that is white-ringed. Further observation reveals a pink bill that is black tipped, black wings with a white wing stripe and blue-gray legs. It is one of the few species of birds where the females are larger than the males.
    This bird favors shorelines, salt marshes, flats and wet grasslands. Wintering in Argentina, Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, the Hudsonian Godwit breeds in areas west and northwest of Hudson Bay. Seen migrating through Minnesota more in the fall than spring, there was a sighting, however, of 300 birds near Crookston back in May of 1982.
    Breeding on the wet tundra near where the forests end, on bogs and marshes, their nests are built on the ground where it is dry, often under a small birch or willow. This nest is sparsely lined with dry plant material. Breeding in late May and July, there is only one brood per year.
    Three or four eggs, pale to deep olive or green in color with blotches or spots are laid and after an incubation period of 22 – 23 days being performed by both parents, downy young are born with eyes open.
    In about 24 hours the young leave the nest. In about 48 hours they can run, swim and catch insects. Parents tend to split the brood in two for tending and after ten days the immature are on their own. In 30 days they become full-feathered.
    These birds probe the mud and often walk into water up to their bellies where they probe, often with head submerged. As quoted in BIRDS OF AMERICA, “The Hudsonian Godwit feeds to a considerable extent upon mosquitoes and horse-flies, as examination of its stomach has amply-proved. It is therefore to be counted a useful bird, since the insects it destroys are known to be harmful.” They also eat aquatic insects, shellfish and worms.