Very large. Exceptionally long downcurved bill. Sexes alike.
Adults: Upper parts, mottled dark brown and buff. Eye, dark brown. Rump, washed with rufous. Tail, barred black brown and off-white. Throat, white with small brown flecks. Sides of face, neck, breast, upper belly, buff streaked with brown. Lower belly, undertail coverts, buff with a few brown streaks. Underwing, heavily barred dark brown and buff. Bill, dark horn brown becoming more pinkish at base. Legs, dull blue grey.
Juveniles: Similar to adult but generally paler and neater. Mantle, scapulars, tertials, have sharply defined pale rufous edges and notches. Underparts streaking is finer. Bill, shorter than adult for the first few months.
Other Names (World)
Far Eastern Curlew, Sea Curlew, Australian Curlew, Eastern Curlew, Long-billed Curlew, Red-rumped Curlew
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Australia (NB), Brunei Darussalam (NB), China (mainland) (NB), Guam (NB), Hong Kong (China) (NB), Indonesia (NB), Japan (NB), Malaysia (NB), Micronesia [Federated States of] (NB), Mongolia (B), New Zealand (NB), North Korea (NB) (P), Northern Mariana Islands (NB), Palau (NB), Papua New Guinea (NB), Philippines (NB), Russia (Asian) (B), Singapore (NB), South Korea (NB), Taiwan (China) (NB), Thailand (NB), Timor-Leste (NB) (P), USA (NB), Vietnam (NB) (P).
Vagrant to Bangladesh (NB), Iran [Islamic Republic of] (E), Oman.
Unknown to Afghanistan.
Eastern Siberia, from upper reaches of R Nizhnyaya Tunguska east through Verkhoyansk Mts to Kamchatka, and south to north-eastern Mongolia, Manchuria and Ussuriland. Winters in Taiwan, Indonesia and New Guinea, but most birds migrate to Australia and a few reach New Zealand. Never recorded in Madagascar.
Population
Estimated population is 38,000 (2010) and decreasing.
Status EN
Habitat loss, hunting and a decrease in the availability of food because of pollution are the main threats. Also, females appear to migrate further south, to the more threatened south Australian wetlands.
Voice
A haunting, sometimes grating, 'cur-lee, cur-lee' or 'crooee, crooe', uttered mostly in flight. Also a musical, bubbling, running trill, rising then falling.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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