There are four subspecies, all with orange head, neck and chest in breeding plumage and dull grey-brown winter coloration, and distinctive black and white wingbar at all times.

Black-tailed godwits spend (the northern hemisphere) winter in areas as diverse as the Indian subcontinent, Australia, New Zealand, western Europe and west Africa.

The species breeds in fens, lake edges, damp meadows, moorlands and bogs and uses estuaries, swamps and floods in (the northern hemisphere) winter; it is more likely to be found inland and on freshwater than the similar bar-tailed godwit.

The black-tailed godwit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Scolopax limosa.

The sexes are similar,[8] but in breeding plumage, they can be separated by the male's brighter, more extensive orange breast, neck and head.

[9] Their breeding habitat is river valley fens, floods at the edges of large lakes, damp steppes, raised bogs and moorlands.

[14] In spring, black-tailed godwits feed largely in grasslands, moving to muddy estuaries after breeding and for winter.

[14] On African wintering grounds, swamps, floods and irrigated paddy fields can attract flocks of birds.

[8] Godwits from the Icelandic population winter mainly in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and the Netherlands, though some fly on to Spain, Portugal and perhaps Morocco.

[16] Young birds from the European populations stay on in Africa after their first winter and return to Europe at the age of two years.

[8] A study of the Icelandic population showed that despite spending winter apart, pairs are reunited on their breeding grounds within an average of three days of each other.

After hatching, they are led away from the nest and may move to habitats such as sewage farms, lake edges, marshes and mudflats.

In the breeding season, prey includes beetles, flies, grasshoppers, dragonflies, mayflies, caterpillars, annelid worms and molluscs.

In water, the most common feeding method is to probe vigorously, up to 36 times per minute, and often with the head completely submerged.

[21] Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) said: "[Godwits] were accounted the daintiest dish in England and I think, for the bignesse, of the biggest price."