Slender-billed Curlew
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| Numenius tenuirostris Vieillot, 1817 |
The Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, is a member of the large wader family Scolopacidae. It breeds in the taiga of Siberia, laying four eggs, and is migratory, formerly wintering around the Mediterranean. Slender-billed Curlew is a medium-size curlew, about the same size as a Whimbrel, but more like the Eurasian Curlew in plumage. It is mainly greyish brown, with a white rump and lower back. Compared to the Eurasian Curlew, it is whiter on the breast, tail and underwing, and the bill is shorter, slenderer, and slightly straighter at the base. The flank spots are also a different shape, round or heart-shaped spots, rather than arrowhead-shaped marks. The calls are shorter and sharper than those of Eurasian Curlew.
They feed by probing soft mud for small invertebrates, but will also pick other small items off the surface if the opportunity arises. It used to be highly gregarious outside the breeding season, associating with related species.
After a long period of steady decline, it is now extremely rare, with only a minute and still declining population. This is now thought to be under 50 birds, with no more than two or three verified sightings in any year in the last five. As a result it is now listed as critically endangered, and is likely in the near future to be the first European bird to become extinct for over 150 years. The cause of the decline is thought to be primarily excessive hunting on the Mediterranean wintering grounds. Habitat loss, particularly in the wintering grounds, may also have played a part, but huge areas of suitable forest bog breeding habitat still exist in Siberia.
The last known nest was found in 1924, near Tara (57°N 74°E), in Omsk oblast, Siberia. Its nesting grounds since then remaining unknown, despite several intensive searches (not surprising, with over 100,000 square kilometres to search). The extent of its decline is also reflected in the absence of wintering birds at previously regular Moroccan sites, although single birds have been seen in Italy and Greece in the 21st century[verification needed]. Remarkably, there is also a single recent (4-7 May 1998) record of an immature (one year old) at Druridge Pools in Northumberland, Great Britain, for more on which see The Druridge Bay curlew.
Slender-billed Curlew has been reported in various Western Palearctic locations on a number of occasions since the Druridge bird, but none have been documented with conclusive photographs and at least one claimed bird, at Minsmere, Suffolk, England in 2004 is now widely believed to have been a Eurasian Curlew. There is considerable controversy over whether the species actually still exists.
[edit] References
- Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater ISBN 0-7099-2034-2.
- Slender-billed Curlew in Northumberland. British Birds 95: 272-299 (2002).
- Where does the Slender-billed Curlew nest? British Birds 95: 334-344 (2002).
