Eurasian Stone-Curlew

• It is the charadriiform that breaks its order's rule: while plovers, oystercatchers and sandpipers live tied to water, the stone-curlew occupies dry steppe far from any shore.
• Its huge yellow eyes are an adaptation to hunting at night; its English name, stone-curlew, refers instead to the stony ground it favours and to its curlew-like call.
• Linnaeus described it in 1758 as Charadrius oedicnemus, within the plover genus.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Steppe and dry grassland away from water, unlike the rest of the waders, which are mostly tied to it. Also dry farmland, fallow ground and wasteland

Sexual maturity

23.9 months

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List; Wikipedia (Burhinus oedicnemus); Catálogo de fauna protegida de la Comunidad de Madrid; Anuario Ornitológico de Albacete (especie objetivo 2016); Linnaeus 1758

Best time: At dusk and by night, when it gives itself away with whistled calls from the plains