Curlew

The bill

The curlew’s bill is among the most distinctive of any bird — a long, strongly downcurved probe that can reach 15 cm. The bill functions as a precision instrument for probing soft mud and wet soil: the tip is flexible and sensory-rich (packed with Herbst corpuscles — mechanoreceptors) allowing the curlew to feel worms and invertebrates in the substrate without seeing them. Different bill lengths between the sexes (females have longer bills) allow males and females to feed at different depths, reducing competition between mates.

A haunting call

The curlew’s bubbling, rising call — cour-li, cour-li rising to a cascade of notes — is one of the most recognisable and emotionally evocative bird calls in Britain. It is associated with remote upland moors, lonely estuaries, and the transition between seasons. The call is embedded in British literature, poetry, and folk music as a symbol of wildness and melancholy.

Serious decline

The curlew has declined by 48% in the UK since 1994 and by up to 80% in some local areas. It is now a Near Threatened species globally and a Bird of Conservation Concern in Britain. Causes include: nest predation (foxes, crows, and mustelids take eggs and chicks); drainage and improvement of upland moors reducing nesting habitat; and afforestation on former moorland. Curlew conservation has become one of the highest-profile bird conservation issues in Britain.

Coastal wintering

In winter, curlews move from upland breeding grounds to estuaries, where they probe mud for ragworms, lugworms, shellfish, and crabs. British estuaries — particularly the Dee, Solway, Morecambe Bay, and the Wash — support large winter concentrations.