Long Billed Curlew

Identification Tips: The average adult Long Billed Curlew measures about 19 inches in length. The Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus) is the largest shorebird, and the most southerly breeding curlew, in North America. This is a very big, lengthy necked shorebird with a pale buff little head and its neck and head are striped. The curlew has a tail striped wih a mahogany color and a brownish colored bottom. The linings of the curlew's wings are colored cinnamon and it has a swarthy eyeliner. Its stomach is brown with dusky stripes on it edges and the beak of the Long Billed Curlew curves downward.

Both the male and female Long Billed Curlew have similar plumage. The young curlews have a shorter beak, with less curving.

Young Long Billed Curlews can walk and feed themselves soon after hatching. The adults take young their chicks to areas of thick cover soon after they hatch where creatures like grasshoppers, make up the majority of the diet for both adults and young.

Two birds that are similar in markings are the Whimbrel and the Marbled Godwit.

Migration Status During spring migration, Long-billed Curlews frequently inhabit the stubble, and fallow fields of the prairies. Also the birds use sloughs and runoff ponds during the migration time. During the autumn migration the curlew visits bodies of water like lake shores and river valleys. The Long Billed Curlew winters in the Imperial Valley in rural farm fields that farmers irrigated or in area where Bermuda grass grows. Farmers often see small groups of curlews with flocks of Cattle Egrets and white-faced Ibis.

Along Billed Curlews arrive in southern Alberta Province around the 15th of April. Their territory size varies from 15 to 50 acres. Mating pairs usually return to the same area year after year.

Nests- The Long Billed Curlews prefer to nest in an environment with open expanses of low vegetation. The curlews build their nests May. The nest is a scrape dug in the ground and the birds line it with grasses, straw, and plant stems. The usual clutch size is four olive-buff, evenly spotted with brown or olive eggs. A full clutch takes four to seven days to complete because the hen usually lays the eggs are every other day.

Both parents incubate the eggs. After the female curlew abandons the nest the male cares for the young until they are old enough to survive on their own. By the end of August, Long Billed Curlews leave their habitat in the Canadian Provinces and migrate south.

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