Describing habitat and finding colour rings of Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa) in Morocco, from 25 February-5 March 2019

The Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa; BTG) is a meadow bird (Verstrael 1987; Thijse 1904). Thecurrent Dutch population is estimated at fewer than 40.000 breeding pairs (Kentie et al. 2016) andrepresents an important part of the total continental BTG population Limosa limosa limosa.However, the number of breeding pairs have declined rapidly over the last decades, as compared tothe 120.000 pairs in the 1960s (Mulder 1972). This is mainly caused by a change in agricultural landuse. Intensification and rationalisation have led to degradation of the breeding habitat, resulting inlow reproduction. The population in the Netherlands cannot produce enough chicks for a stablepopulation. (Vickery et al. 2001; Newton 2004; Tscharnke et al. 2005; Teunissen & Soldaat 2006;Roodbergen et al. 2012). After the breeding season godwits migrate to southern Europe (Spain andPortugal) and West-Africa where they stay for wintering (Márquez-Ferrando et al. 2009; Hooijmeijeret al. 2013)