Eurasian Curlew

Overview

Eurasian Curlew: Large curlew, strongly marked underparts lack rich orange or buff tones that other long billed curlews often show. Brown upperparts. Large, decurved bill, black upper mandible, lower mandible has pink base. In flight it shows prominent white lower back, rump, and underwing linings.

Range and Habitat

Eurasian Curlew: Breeds in wet fields, forest edges, and marshes across Europe and northern Asia. Winters on marine mudflats along all the coasts of Europe, Africa, and Asia. Very rarely appears on Atlantic coast of North America during fall and winter.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Eurasian Curlew is the largest wading bird found in Europe.
Their name is derived from the distinctive ‘curl-oo’ call that can often be heard on their wintering and breeding grounds.
The female normally has a longer bill than the male, but some caution is required to separate them based on this characteristic, as the difference is not always distinct.
A group of curlews has many collective nouns, including a "curfew", "game", "head", "salon", and "skein" of curlews.

The Eurasian Curlew has a current rating of Near Threatened. This evaluation is a recent change from Least Concern in 2000. While this bird species is known to be common in certain areas of the world, in other areas it has experienced significant declines. Populations in Asia seem to be stable for now. The global population, as a whole, has declined over the past few years. The range of the Eurasian Curlew is about 10 million square kilometers. The Eurasian Curlew is a wetland species. This bird species is native to countries in Asia and Europe.