Little Curlew

Numenius minutus Gould, 1841

28–31 cmLength70 cmWingspan173 gWeight

This is the smallest curlew, mainly gray-rufous, with a curved bill shorter than those of other curlews.

Most records: China, Australia, Mongolia

Looks like Eurasian Whimbrel

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Mainly gray-rufous, with a white belly
Bill relatively short and curved
Stripes on both crown and supercilium

Voice

Repeated whistles.

Similar species

Eurasian Whimbrel

Similar head pattern, both with stripes on the crown and supercilium; Little Curlew is the smallest curlew and is smaller.

Where and when it's recorded

Most records: China, Australia, Mongolia

Little Curlew has been recorded at 256 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 23 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

Lake EdaAustralia229 records
Lanyang River Estuary IBATaiwan (China)116 records
Penghu – Jibei IslandTaiwan (China)93 records

More places

Taylors LagoonAustralia81 records
Lanyang River Estuary IBA – Eastern RiverbedTaiwan (China)77 records
Broome South Wastewater Treatment PlantAustralia75 records
Nanhui DongtanChina73 records
Fogg Dam Conservation ReserveAustralia71 records
Holmes Jungle Nature ReserveAustralia69 records
Katherine Wastewater Treatment PlantAustralia66 records

Countries and regions with the most records

China Australia Mongolia New Zealand United Arab Emirates South Korea United Kingdom Japan

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The little curlew (Numenius minutus) is a wader in the large bird family Scolopacidae. It is a very small curlew, which breeds in the far north of Siberia. It is closely related to the North American Eskimo curlew.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Little Curlew?

The Little Curlew is about 28–31 cm long, with a wingspan of 70 cm and weighs around 173 g.

Where does the Little Curlew live?

Its breeding range: Palearctic: patchily in subarctic taiga of west-central to east-central Siberia. It is most often recorded in China, Australia and Mongolia.