Marbled Godwit

How to find it

Look on muddy flats, sandbars and sandy beaches, mostly near estuaries. Check the dikes in mangroves and salt pans, where birds rest. Plan around the tide, since it feeds when the tide is out and roosts when it is in. Godwits often gather in bigger flocks, frequently alongside Whimbrels, so scan those flocks carefully rather than stopping at the first long bill. The Gulf of Nicoya area is the main place to try.

How to recognise it

Size is the first clue. It is about 40 to 50 cm long, with a wingspan of 70 to 88 cm, and the Costa Rican account gives about 48 cm. It is the largest of the four godwits.

Look for these marks:

- a dark, mottled back

- pale brown neck, breast and belly

- dark bars on the breast and flanks

- a long bill, black at the tip, pink at the base and slightly upturned

- dull gray to blackish legs

- cinnamon underwings in flight, with a reddish buff lining

The cinnamon underwing is worth waiting for when a flock lifts off, and it echoes the Spanish name Aguja Canela.

What it sounds like

Recording: Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It feeds by probing mudflats, marshes or beaches while the tide is out, and it roosts when the tide is in. Watching the tide is therefore part of finding it. It mainly eats insects and crustaceans, and also some aquatic plant parts.

In Costa Rica it feeds alone or in small groups, preferring sandbars. Birds rest on dikes in mangroves and salt pans. They often gather in bigger flocks, frequently alongside Whimbrels.

Where it lives

On coasts, in migration and in the non-breeding season, it prefers coastal marshes and sandy flats. It also uses wet savanna or grassland next to the coast, salt marshes, river estuaries, salt ponds and shrimp ponds.

In Costa Rica it is a bird of the Pacific coast, mostly near estuaries, on muddy flats, sandbars and sandy beaches. It has not been reported on the Caribbean coast.

When to see it

A Costa Rican natural history account calls it locally common on passage from August to September and from late March to April. It is an uncommon winter resident and a non-breeding summer resident.

Similar birds

The Whimbrel is browner with a striped head, and the Long-billed Curlew is a more sandy buff. Both have curved bills with no pink, and both stand more horizontally than the godwit. The Long-billed Curlew's bill is strongly downcurved, while the godwit's turns slightly up. The Hudsonian Godwit is smaller and darker, with black underwing coverts instead of cinnamon ones.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The official Costa Rican name is Aguja Canela, also used in Panama and Ecuador. Other Spanish names listed elsewhere include Picopando Canelo, Aguja Moteada, Aguja Jaspeada, Barga Jaspeada and Zarapito moteado. Costa Rica uses Aguja Canela.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican bird list (AOCR) marks it M, a migrant, and it does not breed in the country.

Photography tips

Cocorocas, Puntarenas is the photo location in the Costa Rican account. Wait for birds to fly, since the cinnamon underwing shows best then, and scan mixed flocks with Whimbrels for the longer, pink-based bill.