Long-billed Curlew Images

Long-billed Curlew Images
Long-billed Curlew preening near the wrack line, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida

Long-billed Curlew Images, Facts and Information:

Numenius americanus

  • Long-billed Curlews are large, buffy brown shorebirds with very long, down curved bills, long legs with plain crowns.
  • Long-billed Curlews are North America’s largest shorebird.
  • The bills of female Long-billed Curlews are longer and more curved than the males.
  • Long-billed Curlews are migratory. Their preferred habitat during the breeding season includes shortgrass and mixed grass prairies, agricultural fields along with marshes and playas in the Great Basin. Their preferred habitat during the winter includes coastal areas of the southern U.S along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
  • Long-billed Curlews eat insects, marine invertebrates, marine crustaceans that include worms, shrimp, crabs, grasshoppers, beetles, spiders and caterpillars. They will occasionally eat small mammals.
  • Long-billed Curlews lay 3 to 5 eggs which take 27 to 30 days to hatch. Both sexes incubate and they are monogamous.
  • One nickname for Long-billed Curlews is “Candlestick Birds” because of the resemblance between candlesticks and their bills the other is “sicklebird” for the same reason.
  • A group of curlews can be called a “game”, “salon”, “curfew” or “skein” of curlews.
  • Long-billed Curlews can live up to 8 years.

I hope you enjoy viewing my Long-billed Curlew photos.

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