Long-Billed Curlew - Sierra Club BC
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Long-Billed Curlew

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Long-Billed Curlew

Numenius americanus 

Apearance

These birds are best identified by their long, narrow bill, which they use to forage for food. They are brown with speckled feathers and have long legs with webbed feet. 

Range & Habitat

They are found from the southern United States (New Mexico and Texas) up through the Great Basin in southern B.C. during breeding season. Most of the mating season takes place in short native grasslands. After mating, the birds flock together and migrate to various places along the coast of California and Mexico. 

Reciprocal relationships

Curlews love to use their long bills to dig deep into coastal mud for worms, insects, and tasty crustaceans. When threatened by predators, males flock together to fight off the potential threat. At times, these birds can look quite hilarious as they try to walk in the mudflats where they eat because their webbed feet sometimes get stuck in the mud. 

In May, the curlews migrate north to their grassland breeding grounds. These grassland ecosystems are incredibly important for the long-billed curlew to survive. Each bird lays up to four eggs, which are incubated for 30 days. The fledglings soon leave the nest.  

In the past, long-billed curlews have been subjected to uncontrolled hunting regulations and have therefore dropped in numbers. Today, they are threatened due to habitat loss in their grassland breeding habitat in southern B.C. 

status

COSEWIC: Threatened 
CDC: Yellow 

more information

If you belong to a First Nation with a story or piece of information not represented here and you would like to share more about this species, please email us at education@sierraclub.bc.ca.   

photo credit

Canva

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