Slender-billed Curlew, DYK Fact #527

[Ebudae]

Did you know? A handsome wader, the Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris) is very similar to the common or garden curlew of Britain’s marshes, moors and coasts – it is slightly smaller, with a slightly shorter bill, and slightly different spots on the breast – and so may sometimes be overlooked.

It’s the rarest bird of the Old World, so rare, in fact, that it hasn’t even been glimpsed for nearly a decade. It may even be extinct. But conservationists think the species may still be hanging on, and on Thursday 04 December 2008 a global quest was launched to find it – The Independent.

[Sophie]

Did you know? Curlews are big waders with lots of attitude and if they don’t like having you in their territory they let you know. I have just read about the curlew in the section on wetlands & river of the book Scotland’s Wildlife by Niall Benvie.

[Ebudae]

That is of course the Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata).

[Sophie]

Another British wader species is the redshank, which I have just read about in the section on wetlands & river of Niall Benvie’s Scotland’s Wildlife. Did you know? Redshanks are more solitary feeders than some other waders, reflecting their choice of food on the mudflats – a gathering of birds being more likely to frighten away their major prey item, the crustacean Corophium volutator.