Curlew

Europe’s largest wading bird, with a distinctive long, curving bill

Photo by Ken Billington. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence

The haunting, melancholy call of the curlew (Numenius arquata) — the plaintive “coor-li” that gives the bird its name — can be heard for most of the year, echoing across windswept moors and marshlands where it breeds, or above the coastal mudflats in winter.

The curlew is Europe’s largest wader, measuring up to 22 inches (55 cm) in length. The sexes are alike in appearance.

In early spring, when the birds arrive at their breeding grounds, the males establish their territories, circling a wide area and announcing their presence loud and clear. This is when the rich crescendo of notes which is the curlew’s song is heard at its best: as the male rises steeply into the air with rapid wing-beats, the song starts with low-pitched notes and rises both in tone and tempo, then dies away as the bird glides gracefully down on quivering wings.

Curlews gather at regular roosts on the shore, often in the company of other waders such as oystercatchers.

Usually, four eggs are laid in a shallow depression lined with plant fragments. The eggs are pale green in colour, with darker green, brown, or purple blotches, and are incubated mainly by the hen bird. Soon after hatching the young birds leave the nest with their parents. They fly when five or six weeks old.

Insects, worms, small frogs, and snails form most of the curlew’s diet during the breeding season, but in winter it feeds on shore creatures such as crabs, shrimps, and cockles. As it probes for food, the bird uses its down-curved bill to explore beneath the surface.

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