Curlew Sandpiper

Overview

Curlew Sandpiper: Medium-sized sandpiper with mottled rufous, white, and black upperparts. Head, neck and breast are a rich rufous while vent, undertail coverts and underwings are white. Black bill is long and slightly decurved. The legs and feet are black. Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Curlew Sandpiper: Breeds in Eurasia and very rarely in northern Alaska. Rare but regular migrant to the east coast, less common on west coast; spends winters mainly in the Old World. Nests on tundra; in migration stays on estuaries, lagoons, and lakes.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Curlew Sandpiper, although breeding in northern Asia, seems to stray to many parts of the world outside of its normal haunts.
The numbers of this species (and of Little Stint) depend on the population of lemmings. In poor lemming years, predatory species such as skuas and Snowy Owls will take Arctic-breeding waders instead.
This species occasionally hybridizes with the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and the Pectoral Sandpiper, producing the presumed "species" called "Cooper's Sandpiper" and "Cox's Sandpiper."
A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.

The Curlew Sandpiper has a large range, estimated globally at 100,000 to 1,000,000 square kilometers. It is native to the nations of Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, and Australia and prefers grassland, wetland, and marine ecosystems, though it has been known to reside near water storage areas and irrigated land. The global population of this bird is estimated to be 1,400,000 individuals and it does not appear to meet population decline criteria that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. The current evaluation status of the Curlew Sandpiper is Least Concern.