godwit

Any wading bird Limosa, of the family Scolopacidae, that also contains sandpipers, snipes, and curlews, in the order Charadriiformes. They have very long bills, slightly upcurved; long, slender legs, with a great part of the tibia bare of feathers, and a comblike claw on the third toe. Four species of the genus are known, all frequenters of marshes, especially by the seashore. They chiefly inhabit the arctic and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, but migrate southwards in the summer as far as North and South America and New Zealand.