Whimbrel

The Whimbrel is a medium-sized member of the curlew family, streaky grayish-brown overall with a long, evenly decurved bill used for probing and picking prey from mud and sand. Its head pattern is distinctive: a broad dark stripe through the eye and bold dark lateral crown stripes bordering a pale central crown stripe.

Sexes look alike, and the species is smaller and shorter-billed than the closely related Eurasian Curlew and Long-billed Curlew, with a proportionally shorter, more evenly curved bill.

One of the most widely distributed shorebirds in the world, the Whimbrel breeds across Arctic and subarctic regions of North America and Eurasia and winters on coastlines across nearly every continent.

Key field marks

• Long, evenly decurved bill, shorter than in larger curlews
• Bold dark crown stripes bordering a pale central crown stripe
• Dark eye-stripe
• Grayish-brown, streaky body plumage

Similar species

• Eurasian Curlew and Long-billed Curlew are larger with longer, more strongly downcurved bills and lack the strongly striped crown pattern.
• Bristle-thighed Curlew (Pacific) is very similar but has warmer, more cinnamon-toned plumage and a different range.

Whimbrels breed on open Arctic and subarctic tundra across northern North America and Eurasia. Outside the breeding season they occupy an enormous range of coastal habitats nearly worldwide, including sandy beaches, rocky shores, mudflats, and mangrove-lined coasts, from temperate to tropical latitudes across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Voice

A distinctive, rapid, bubbling series of whistled notes, often rendered as a rippling pip-pip-pip-pip-pip, delivered on a level pitch—one of the most recognizable shorebird calls.

Feeding

Uses its curved bill to probe burrows for crabs, especially fiddler crabs on tropical and subtropical coasts, and also picks insects and berries from tundra vegetation during the breeding season.

Nesting

Nests on the ground in a shallow scrape on open tundra, often on slightly raised, well-drained terrain. Both parents incubate and aggressively defend the nest against Arctic predators, including foxes and jaegers, sometimes striking intruders in flight.