Long Billed Curlew, Ahead of the Curve

The largest shorebirds of North America, the Long-Billed Curlew is a grassland bird, breeding in the Great Plains and Great Basin. They look similar to the Marbled Godwit, but are larger with curvier and longer beaks. Males and females look alike, but females have a longer bill with a more pronounced curve at the tip. Coloring is speckled and reddish-brown. 

You’ll find Curlews foraging in the prairie grasses or along mudflats and shallow wetlands. Winter range is along U.S. coasts and into Mexico. They eat insects, marine crustaceans, and bottom-dwelling marine invertebrates. The remarkably long, downcurved bill allows curlews to forage for earthworms and other deep-burrowing prey such as shrimp and crabs. Sometimes Long-billed Curlews peck at the ground, eating grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, spiders, and occasionally eggs and nestlings.

Males court females with aerial displays, calling, and ritualized scraping and nest-building gestures. In aerial displays males flutter up to 50 feet above the ground and start descending with their head stretched out, wings curved downward, and legs tucked up into the body while calling. Pairs form monogamous bonds during the breeding season, and some may pair with the same mate in subsequent seasons.

When ready to nest, males make scrapes in the ground for nest sites. Females contribute, using their breasts and bills to shovel out a depression in the ground. Once they form the depression, they use pebbles, bark, animal droppings, grass, stems, twigs, and seeds to line the nest. A clutch is 4 eggs, and chicks are able to leave the nest several hours after hatching. 

Long-billed Curlews were much more numerous in the nineteenth century and bred over a much larger area, including parts of Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, and Arizona. Populations were extirpated in these regions due to hunting and conversion of their grassland breeding habitat to agriculture prior to 1900. Long-billed Curlews also used to be common along the Atlantic coast in winter, but now rarely occur there. The major continuing threat to Long-billed Curlews is habitat loss owing both to development and projected effects of climate change. Pesticide use also harms their food supply. 

Original mixed media on raw stretched canvas with maple float frame. Alternative hardwood frames available upon request.

Sources: All About Birds and Audubon Society