Least ConcernWhimbrel
Numenius phaeopus
37 countries24 parks
Species group · Birds
WAnimals has 3 species of curlew, in the family Scolopacidae.
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 3.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
1 species in this group is in a threatened category according to the IUCN.
Recorded in 98 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
Its curved bill pulls crabs out of their burrows in the mud.
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Its call is a series of seven rapid, descending whistles that gives it away before it is seen, and that has earned it onomatopoeic names in several languages.
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Its curved bill is adapted to crab burrows: it follows the curve of the tunnel and pulls the crab out, then tears off its legs before swallowing it.
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It is the only wader in the world that loses the ability to fly while moulting: it renews all its flight feathers at once and spends several weeks on the ground on Pacific atolls, completely defenceless against introduced rats and cats.
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The young migrate alone: the adults leave Alaska weeks before the juveniles, which then cross thousands of kilometres of ocean on their own to islands they have never seen.
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It has the longest down-curved bill of any European wader, suited to drawing worms and invertebrates out of deep mud on marshes and estuaries.
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