4, see text Godwits are a group of four large, long-billed, long-legged and strongly migratory waders of the bird genus Limosa.

They frequent tidal shorelines, breeding in northern climates in summer and migrating south in winter.

[3] In October 2022, a 5 month old, male bar-tailed godwit was tracked from Alaska to Tasmania, a trip that took 11 days, and recorded a non-stop flight of 8,400 miles (13,500 km).

[4] The godwits can be distinguished from the curlews by their straight or slightly upturned bills, and from the dowitchers by their longer legs.

Sir Thomas Browne writing in about 1682 noted that godwits "were accounted the daintiest dish in England".

Certainly, curlews and godwits are rather ancient and in some respects primitive lineages of scolopacids, further complicating the assignment of such possibly basal forms.