Long-billed Curlew

The Long-billed Curlew is the largest shorebird in North America, immediately recognizable by its extraordinarily long, strongly decurved bill—the longest of any North American bird relative to body size. Overall plumage is warm cinnamon-buff, finely streaked and mottled with dark brown, and the underwings and axillaries show a rich cinnamon color visible in flight.

Females have noticeably longer bills than males, an unusually pronounced example of sexual dimorphism in bill length among shorebirds.

Once much more numerous, the species suffered historical declines from habitat loss on its native-grassland breeding grounds but remains fairly widespread across the interior western United States and Canada.

Key field marks

• Extremely long, strongly downcurved bill—longer than the bird's head length several times over
• Warm cinnamon-buff overall plumage
• Cinnamon underwings and axillaries, visible in flight
• Large size, noticeably bigger than a Whimbrel

Similar species

• Whimbrel is smaller with a shorter, less dramatically curved bill and a bold striped crown pattern.
• Marbled Godwit has an upturned (not downcurved) bicolored bill and is smaller overall.

Long-billed Curlews breed in native short- and mixed-grass prairies and grasslands of the interior western United States and southern Canada. Outside the breeding season they winter on coastal mudflats, beaches, and estuaries along the Pacific and Gulf coasts and in agricultural fields and grasslands further inland, from the southern United States to Central America.

Voice

A loud, rising, whistled cur-lee call, from which the family gets its name, along with various other whistled and bubbling notes given during breeding displays.

Feeding

Uses its long bill to probe deep into mud, sand, and soil for crustaceans, mollusks, and insects, and also forages by picking insects from grasslands; occasionally takes small vertebrates such as toads or the eggs of other ground-nesting birds.

Nesting

Nests on the ground in short-grass prairie, often in a simple, sparsely lined scrape. Both parents incubate and defend the nest, though prairie habitat loss and conversion to cropland have reduced available nesting areas across much of the species' historical breeding range.