Adults: Crown, brown. Eyebrow, buff. Line from bill through and behind eye, dark brown. Upperparts, dark brown with bold, buff edges and notches on the scapulars and coverts. Underparts, buff, and rather bright, with streaking on neck and breast, and bars on the flanks. Rump, buff. Tail, buff with dark bars. Stiff bristles on thighs and flanks are difficult to see except at close range and in good light. Bill, dark brown, but lower mandible is paler. Legs, blue-grey.
Juveniles: Similar to adult plumage during breeding season but as winter progresses becomes darker.
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
American Samoa (NB), Chile (NB), Cook Islands (NB), Fiji (NB), French Polynesia (NB), Guam (NB), Kiribati (NB), Marshall Islands (NB), Micronesia [Federated States of] (NB), Nauru (NB), New Zealand (NB), Niue (NB), Northern Mariana Islands (NB), Pitcairn Islands (NB), Samoa (NB), Solomon Islands (NB), Tokelau (NB), Tonga (NB), Tuvalu (NB), United States Minor Outlying Islands (NB), USA (B), Wallis and Futuna Islands (NB).
Vagrant to Indonesia (NB), Japan (NB), Papua New Guinea, Philippines (NB).
Western Alaska, from Seward Peninsula to Yukon Delta. Winters from Marshall and Hawaiian Is, south to Santa Cruz, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Marquesas, Tuamotu Is and Pitcairn I.
 
Population
Estimated population is 7,000 (2010) and decreasing.
Status VU
Predation by introduced cats, dogs and possibly pigs of flightless birds on breeding grounds, and raptors of nesting birds are the main threats.
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.
Voice
A 'chi-u-it', 'kwi', 'kuiiyo', 'piiyo', whistled 'whe-whe-whe-whe' and ringing 'peeuu-pee' or 'whee-wheeoo'.
Bristle-thighed Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis) [XC862223]
by Percy Ulsamer from Brackish Seep, Sand Island, Midway Atoll, United States (call, flight call)
Bristle-thighed Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis) [XC208171]
by Peter Boesman from Kahuku, Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States (flight call)