Curlew is big. Range and habitats of the curlew

Curlew is a bird from the genus of curlews of the snipe family of the order Charadriiformes.

Appearance of the Great Curlew

The body weight of the curlew ranges from 0.6 to 1 kg, the body length is 50 - 60 cm. The wingspan of the bird is 80 - 100 cm.

This species is not only the most common among all species of the curlew genus in Europe, but also the largest member of the Charadriiformes order. A characteristic feature of the appearance of this bird is a long beak curved down. In this species, the male is much smaller than the female. The beak of the female is longer and more curved. In addition to these features, there are no significant differences in appearance between males and females.

The plumage of the curlew has a color from gray-brown to beige-brown. The color of the body of the bird is not uniform, there are various blotches and stripes on the body.

Range and habitats of the curlew

The main area of ​​​​distribution of this bird is Central and Northern Europe, as well as the British Isles. In Europe, the southern border of the range runs approximately along the 45th parallel. Curlews are also found in most of the Asian continent. Here their habitat extends to Kyrgyzstan in the south and to Manchuria and Lake Baikal in the east.

This species is mainly migratory. Only a few individuals live a sedentary life. For the winter, the curlew migrates to the Mediterranean, to the Atlantic coast and to Africa.

Within the nesting range, the bird prefers to settle in wet swampy landscapes. In winter, curlews live inland in water meadows and fields, as well as in watts and on the coasts.

Curlew lifestyle and nutrition

The bird leads a fairly social lifestyle. Curlews form huge flocks on flights. With the help of its curved long beak, the bird extracts worms, snails, mollusks and other living creatures in a layer of silt and sand.

Vision is not a very necessary element of a successful hunt for the Curlew, as it searches for prey with the help of a sensitive end of the beak. On wintering grounds, curlews often hunt in shallow water, producing fish and shrimp fry. Also, heaps of algae thrown ashore, in which curlews look for crabs, become an object of special interest to birds. On nesting grounds, earthworms, insects and their larvae, small frogs and mollusks become the main prey. In the summer, curlews hunt various beetles in fields and plantations.

Listen to the voice of the Curlew

Curlew breeding

The first individuals begin to arrive from wintering grounds in late March - early April. Almost immediately after arriving at the nesting sites, the birds occupy nesting sites. The curlew is a monogamous bird. Curlew nests in pairs or small groups. Before mating, the male attracts the female with the help of current flight.

The nest of the Curlew is a hole in a small grassy tussock, ground or mound among sparse vegetation. Litter in the nest is small twigs, stems of horsetail and cotton grass, dry grass and feathers. Egg laying begins in late April - early May. One clutch contains an average of 4 eggs.

The shell is painted in greenish tones and covered with many brown specks. The incubation period lasts 27 - 29 days. In the incubation of the clutch, the female and the male take part on an equal footing. The nest is actively protected from ill-wishers.

LARGE HOLDER (Numenius arquata)

• belongs to the snipe family. Its length reaches 70-75 cm, wingspan - 125 cm, wing length - 32, tail - 12, beak - 18 - 20 cm. The plumage of the upper side of the body is brown with light edges, the lower part of the body is rusty yellow with brown spots; flight feathers are black with white spots, tail feathers have black-brown stripes.
  There is hardly an area in Europe where the curlew would not be found; in the north it nests, in the south it happens during migration. Moreover, he visits India and Africa in winter. With us, it appears in April, and its years continue until the beginning of May, but by August the curlew returns and finally flies away for the winter in September. Of all the curlews, this is the most indiscriminate in the choice of habitat: it settles with equal willingness near the seashore, near the river, and near the lake, on a plain or hilly terrain. This is a shy, cautious, distrustful bird; she willingly gathers in small flocks, her caution always gathers around her flocks of other less intelligent legged birds. The voice of the curlew consists of rounded, sonorous tones. Its nesting place is mainly in the northern countries and especially in the tundra. Its food, in addition to plant matter and insects, consists of small fish and amphibians.

L.P. Sabaneev Russian hunting.- Ed .: Eksmo, 2011 .

MEDIUM Curlew (Numenius phaeopus)

• differs mainly in a black-brown head without spots and with a longitudinal whitish stripe in the middle and smaller (52 cm, beak 11 cm), found in Northern and Central Europe and Asia to the Ob River and in Eastern Siberia. Breeds in Northern and Eastern, partly Central European Russia, Iceland, Faroe Islands and Great Britain; It visits Southern and Central Europe and most of Central and Southern Russia during migration.

Russian hunting.- Ed .: Eksmo, 2011 .

Little Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris)

Why the Germans call him the crown, or royal, sandpiper, I do not know; nothing resembling a crown or crown is noticeable on his head; perhaps for the size by which the curlew indisputably surpasses all other waders. The French call it kurli, Russian hunters call it a curlew, and the people call it a steppe, or a steppe, because the steppe mainly serves as its permanent home; in the steppe he brings out children, and in the steppe they reach full age.

Curlews are divided into three genera according to their size: large, medium and small. A curlew of a large kind will have the volume of its body with a grouse chicken or a yard chicken; the medium curlew is somewhat smaller, and the small curlew is much smaller, no more than a Russian pigeon; the latter breed is incomparably more numerous than the first two. I will describe in detail, of course, from nature, the medium curlew and then I will say how all three breeds differ from each other; in the variegation of feathers and in the composition of all parts of the body, they are completely similar.

Curlew is all grey-mottled and covered with pale brown spots or speckles; on the back and wings, especially on their outer half, the specks are much larger and dark brown, and on the neck, head and chest they are smaller, yellowish and lighter; the belly is almost white, except for rare brown, very beautiful spear-shaped spots; the underside of the wings, going near the fern, consists of pure white small feathers, and the underside of the remaining large feathers is pale gray, very beautiful and clearly repeats the pattern of the upper side of the wings. The tail feathers are variegated above and nearly white below the tail; under brown long feathers already from half of the back lie bright white feathers with small spear-shaped specks; on the neck, under the neck, the feathers are light, even whitish; eyes small, dark; a neck three inches long; the nose is dark-horn in color, rather thick, bent down, two inches and a half; the wings are very large, each two-quarters and an inch long, measured from the shoulder joint to the end of the last feather; the tail is short; legs a quarter long, toes proportionate; the color of the skin on the legs is dark, the fingers are even darker, the nails are completely black, small and strong.

The peculiarity of the curlew - the nose bent down - prevents him from drinking in the usual way. Curlew, having scooped up water with its nose, deftly wraps its head and nose with the lower side up, which keeps water in it, as in a concave vessel; he wraps his head and nose even more quickly, in the same turned position he hooks under his leg (for which he bends one leg), then quickly pulls his head up and drains water down his throat ... the operation is rather tricky, which the curlew performs very deftly and easily.

In addition to superiority in size, the curlew of the first category is darker brown in feather and has a short and hoarse voice; he sometimes brings out children in dry swamps and on the edges of wet, overgrown with large tussocks, moss, bushes and forests, lying in the neighborhood of fields or steppe places; occasionally the curlew joins it, but never small, which always lives in the steppes and which is much lighter in feather and the specks on it are smaller; his voice is much clearer and more shrill than that of the average curlew, whose cry is somewhat thicker and not so long.

All three breeds are excellent runners, especially the small curlew: when a person approaches him, he bends his long legs somewhat, stretches out his neck and tilts his head a little, starts running so quickly that the eye does not have time to follow him, and, flickering in the steppe grass, like some kind of curly ribbon, he soon hides from the most vigilant hunter.

All three breeds of curlews do not arrive early, in half and even at the end of April; at first they fly in large flocks very high, so that they are not visible, but only a special, sonorous cry is heard, which, however, is not as long as at the time when they occupy their permanent summer apartments - green steppes. Soon after their passage, curlews will begin to come across plowed fields, along last year's thawed stubble, along the banks of spring puddles, ponds, lakes, and even flat banks of rivers that have spilled over low-lying places. They rarely came across to me in stanichki, and almost always in pairs or alone. It is a pleasure for any hunter to meet and kill a curlew at this time; then he happens to be guards, well-fed and rather rare; besides, their spring appearance and vacillation does not last long: as soon as the steppes thaw and wilt, the curlews are already there. I even believe that the steppe waders encountered in the spring along rivers, lakes and ponds are all migratory, not yet reached their present location, and the indigenous inhabitants of the steppes descend directly onto the steppes: they, in turn, were migratory and staggered everywhere until did not reach their exit points. I am convinced of the validity of this assumption by the fact that almost always, going around the floods of rivers in the valleys and marshes in the spring, I met curlews there, who still screamed in a flying cry or voice, not so drawn out and single-tracked, but climbing a mountain and leaning into the steppe, a verst or less, now I found steppe waders, which, obviously, had already begun to host there, fought near the same places and shouted like summer: they burst loudly when they flew up, and took another trilling knee, the sounds of which are thicker and quieter when descended and landed on the ground. Other hunters noticed exactly the same.

The first knee in the Curlew's call can be said to consist of upper notes, and the second - of lower ones. There is also a cry from him, which looks like some kind of howling or pulling his voice into himself: he emits it only in a sitting position, about to fly. Often these sounds open him, lurking in the grass.

Curlews from arrival, like any bird, are rather guarded; but, looking around, they soon become a little quieter, and then you can drive up to them in a hunting droshky or peasant dissolutions; as soon as they set about making nests, they become rather mild-mannered, although not to the same extent as marsh waders and other small sandpipers.

The trouble for curlews is an early warm and dry spring! They will soon build their nests and sit on their eggs, and at this time steppe fires, or burns, overtake them. Steppe game suffers terrible ruin from them. If the spring is late and wet, then the fire cannot spread everywhere, does not go far into the depths of the steppes, and the bird is saved; but in the early dry spring, a stream of flame engulfs the terrible expanse of the steppes and destroys not only all the nests and eggs, but often the birds themselves ...

When the fiery hurricane passes, the earth cools down and stops smoking, the surviving curlews, sometimes driven far away by the fire, now return to their nests and if they find them burnt, they immediately curl new ones, as close as possible to the old ones and certainly in places or places that have survived from fire.

It is an undoubted truth that no bird nests in a burning place; sometimes this may seem unfair, because the bird lives and hatches, obviously, on the scorched steppes; but I was convinced by careful research that the nest is always twisted in an unburned place, even if it were a fathom in size, even less, and burned on all sides. When the grass grows, then with a superficial view it is impossible to notice where it was burning and where it was not; but when you unfold the fresh green grass near the nest itself, you will always find last year's dry grass, which is not and cannot be in a burnt place, and which is not difficult to verify.

If the fires happen late (which sometimes happens) and the steppe waders lose their eggs already incubated or they themselves get burned somehow during a fire, especially at night, then the waders do not start other nests and remain single for this year, continuing to pound about the places where their nests were burned. I happened to find and kill such idle curlews; they are always fatter than those who have children; in others I even found slightly singed feathers.

So, in the second half of April, the curlews occupy the steppes or steppe places, sometimes surrounded by arable land on all sides, and immediately weave, or rather, arrange their nests, because there is not much wind here. The device of the nest is very simple: a small hole in a dry place, under a bush of last year's feather grass, the bottom and sides of which are low, surrounded and covered with dry grass - that's all. The female lays four eggs of an ordinary Easter cake shape; the size of the eggs depends on the size of the curlews: in large ones they are larger than chicken ones, and in small ones - no more than small guinea fowl eggs, but only longer; the color of the eggs is greenish-gray, they are mottled or spotted, which are larger and darker at the blunt end of the egg.

The male shares with the female the incubation of eggs and all the care of the children. Three weeks later, kulich hatchlings hatch, covered with bluish-greenish fluff; there are almost always four of them, because talkers are very rare; they leave the nest very soon and begin to run nimbly, but in the first days the father and mother feed them.

The food of both old and young consists of various insects, and mainly of worms, which they very skillfully pull out with their long crooked noses from the earth, which is not always soft. However, sometimes I happened to find seeds of various herbs and grains in their crops.

When the kulichs grow up and it becomes more difficult for them to hide in the steppe, sometimes low grass, the father and mother take them out into the little planks and in general to such places where the grass is taller and thicker or where small steppe shrubs grow; there they remain until the age of maturity of the young, until they take off, or rise. At this time, it is difficult to find them, because from large children, old waders no longer fly out to meet a person or dog and do not hover over them, they do not even emit any voice that could reveal their hidden shelter to the hunter.

HUNT FOR CUMBLESHNEPS

S.T. Aksakov. "Notes of a rifle hunter of the Orenburg province"

Steppe waders in the steppes are the same as marsh waders in swamps: they meet a person, a dog, even any animal approaching their nests or children just as far away, they also first fly close to the hunter, hover over him and sit down in a circle, trying to take him away it in the opposite direction, but they do all this with less vehemence and more caution.

After several shots, the steppe waders move away and become gatehouses. However, in the steppes, which have not heard a gunshot, the first onslaught of curlews, especially on a riding hunter with a dog, is very bold. In my youth, I happened to travel a lot along the steppe roads of the Orenburg and Simbirsk provinces, and whole flocks of steppe waders, flying in from all sides, used to pursue me for tens of miles, giving way to newly arriving, fresh curlews, as I moved away from the nests of some and approached others. . The whole air was filled with their ringing, flood trills: some hovered over the horses; others sank to the ground near the road and ran with incredible agility; the third sat on milestones. Here you could shoot as many curlews as you liked, for new, undeterred waders were constantly coming across. I have many times been in a difficult position for an ardent hunter: driving through some need, sometimes in a hurry, stuffing a whole bunch of curlews, not finding a place where to put them, and not knowing what to do with them later, I constantly made a promise to myself : do not stop, do not get out of the tarantass, do not shoot ...

But suddenly a new flock swooped in, larger and bolder than the previous one, and the curlews fell again from my well-aimed shots. Curlews of a small kind show much more courage and ardor towards children; the medium ones are more careful, and the large ones, even from the first time, sometimes do not fly too close to a person, unless somehow by accident: they will now move to a safe distance and begin to fly around, emitting their hoarse, as if creaking, short trills. Here, a young, ardent hunter can sow a lot of shot across the green steppe without killing a single large curlew, especially if he starts using not the largest varieties of shot. True, the larger the shot, the wider it spreads and flies less often, and the more difficult it is to hit the target, but the fact is that at a long distance, that is, sixty or seventy steps, you can’t kill a big curlew even with a shot of the 3rd number, for the steppe sandpiper is much stronger for a gun than the marsh and other sandpipers. It's amazing how the eyes are deceived! Will the hunter take a closer look at the circles that the bird makes around him, and they will begin to seem smaller to him, or when turning, sometimes sharply, behind which the hunter himself turns, it will seem to him that the sandpiper is flying straight at him! .. I don’t know, only this I myself was often deceived, and many mistakes were the result of it.

Sometimes, after killing a curlew and measuring a distance that seemed ordinary, I found that it was well over seventy paces, and I would not even shoot at this measure. In such desperate circumstances, seeing that duck shot does not “take away”, as the hunters say, I used goose and, although occasionally, I got several huge steppes.

As soon as the young begin to migrate, the old ones will begin to roam with them in separate broods through plowed fields, recent fallows, and generally in places where the earth is softer; then they unite in villages, broods of two and three, finally, fall into large flocks, in which sometimes all three genera of curlews are mixed, and begin to visit swamps, spills of large ponds and flat shores of large lakes. They spend there for several hours, around noon, and rest, lying on the chlupi, even dozing. They roam most willingly in dirty, wet places, trampled by herds.

Having staggered in this way for two weeks, the curlews, despite the warm, sometimes even hot time, disappear in mid-August, that is, still uniting in huge flocks, they move south. This happens at least in the Orenburg province.

The shooting of curlews is very different both in their prey and in the dignity of prey: steppe waders in the spring, migrating, not yet broken into pairs or at least not starting to make nests, are quite full, tasty and, most importantly, rare. Of course, among the various flying game you hear and see flocks of curlews flying by, but it is impossible to shoot them at a distance. Then you will begin to meet them occasionally, also along with other game, along the dirty banks of ponds, spring puddles and overflowing rivers, but it can be very difficult to drive up to them within the scope of a rifle shot: firstly, because they are gatehouses, and secondly, because other small game, flying up incessantly from your approach, frightens and captivates the curlews with its example; sneaking up on something or even crawling up is impossible, because the places are almost always open and smooth.

In a word, the spring migrating steppe sandpiper is an expensive prey for a hunter. In the steppe, in the places of their permanent residence, they are also at first quite a gatehouse. Of course, they soon become quieter, but they have already broken into pairs, set to making nests and losing weight at an incredible speed. After the time when the curlews sit on their eggs or bring out the young, you can get them much more, and in places not shot, as I have already said, it is not difficult to kill them in large numbers, but at this time, even more emaciated, dry and callous in taste, they will lose their value, especially the steppes of the third, small, kind. All this shooting is carried out from the beginning of spring from the entrance to the sitting and, more often, to the running curlews, and then - flying in, when, at the first appearance of the hunter, the waders from the nests will fly in and curl around him.

When the young curlews rise and begin to fly in broods across the fields, and then in flocks along the banks of ponds or lakes, their shooting again receives a high price, because it is difficult to find them and it is even more difficult to drive up to them, because they are very watchful even after the first shot. fly away to other distant places.

By the time they fly away, the old curlews will become so fat that all the husk is covered with fat, even the young ones are quite fat. This is the time when the acquisition of curlews is expensive and flattering; but, unfortunately, the booty is insignificant and accidental; there is no longer any hunting for curlews at this time. If you somehow accidentally stumble, going around the banks of a pond, lake or river reach, on a large village of steppe sandpipers, then it’s good if you manage to shoot at them once; it is necessary that the places be very spacious and free, and that a flock of curlews move to the other bank or another place after your shot, and not fly away altogether. It is possible to knock out a few pieces from a flock with one or two shots only if the terrain allows you to sneak up on a wandering flock because of something or if it runs into a hunter who had the opportunity to hide in a bush, in a rut, in a ravine, in a reed or simply on the ground, but for this it is necessary that the hunter knows in advance when the curlews arrive and in what favorite place they land, so that he waits for them or sees at least from a distance a flying flock.

In my neighborhood, about twenty versts away, there was such a pond, to which the curlews flew before their departure in the autumn every day at noon; this arrival was constantly repeated every year at the end of July or at the beginning of August and lasted for two weeks. Fortunately, it was precisely along that very bank, flat and open, on which the whole flock usually landed, that the old half-rotten wattle fence stretched, which had once surrounded a hemp plant, abandoned for more than ten years; the wattle fence was always overgrown with tall grass, and it was clever for me to hide in it. Around noon, I sat down in my secret shelter and waited for the arrival of curlews. Smoothly and carelessly, a huge village of steppe waders of all three breeds swooped down on me; not only noise - I heard the wind from their heavy flight; a dark cloud swept over me, all made up of long wings, legs, necks and crooked noses...

The first time I was so taken aback that I let the flock pass and shot after one of the lagging sandpipers and wounded him in the wing. Subsequently, I was calmer and aimed either at the largest curlew, or at the place where the flock flocked more densely, not letting it get too close to me or letting it pass; to shoot at too close a distance means to kill and often break only one sandpiper. Sometimes I allowed them to sit down and fired at the seated ones, and I happened to knock out three or four curlews with one charge. The frightened flock, excited, flew away noisily, but, having made a circle and not seeing the presence of a person anywhere, returned back and often again descended to their original place solely because I did not leave my shelter and did not pick up killed or shot curlews; the last circumstance is very important, because a flock will almost always descend to a wounded bird. The secondary shot brought me new prey, and the curlews flew away completely until the next day. However, I never came two days in a row, but always a day or two later and always found them until the very departure, which never happened after August 17th.

The taste of curlew meat is as completely different as hunting for them: from arrival they are quite juicy and tasty, during the withdrawal of children they are dry and stale, and on departure both young ones, and especially old ones, doused with fat, are excellent.

Calendar

February. In Transcaucasia, the curlew is shown (migratory) sometimes at the end of the month.

March. At the beginning of the month, the gross passage of curlews in Transcaucasia, in South-Eastern (Stavropol and Astrakhan) and South Russia; in the eastern (partially southeastern) and central chernozem regions, as well as (only in migration) in the southwestern region, it sometimes appears in the middle, but more often in the last days.

April. In the middle black earth regions they often arrive in the first days; in the suburbs, north-western and eastern (sometimes in the south of Perm) - about the 10th and in the second half of the current; curlews (N. arguata), arriving a little earlier than medium-sized ones (N. phaeopus), rush at the end of the month. In the more northern and northeastern regions, they arrive near the middle. They keep: in the south - in the steppe (large), in the middle lane - in swampy meadows (mostly the middle curlew) or on fallow fields, in North-Western Russia - in moss swamps.

May. In the middle, northwestern and eastern regions, the current ends in the middle and in the first half; all sit on nests (3-4 eggs), large ones a little earlier than medium and small (in the eastern regions) curlews. By the end of the month, the young begin to hatch. In the north they sit down in the second half.

June. In the middle, eastern, and partly northeastern regions, for about half a month, the majority of the young flies, and the broods stay mainly in the fields or along the banks of rivers and lakes. Old people shed.

October. In the southern regions, the passage ends at the beginning of the month; in the Crimea and Moldova - in the middle or in the second half.

November. In the Crimea they are sometimes found until the end of November; in Transcaucasia, the migration lasts the whole month.

The flight of long-nosed large birds attracts the attention of many hunters. Not everyone distinguishes between types of snipe. Curlews have a peculiar shape of the nose, a large body. Today they are quite difficult to meet and even harder to get. Hunting for cautious game suits gambling people. Since it is prohibited in the springtime, the curlews can be observed from the side. Showing and nursing offspring is very interesting for them. The main thing is not to disturb the masonry, but it is better to protect it from predators.

Curlew Description

Curlews are the brightest representatives of the snipe. They stand out, first of all, with their very long beak, which is slightly curved downwards. Body size, plumage color, leg and bill length depend on the species. The maximum individual reaches a length of 60 centimeters, weighs up to 1000 grams.

Individuals prefer to live in communication with all members of the genus. Only in nesting places do they live singly or in flocks. Birds are distinguished by a peaceful disposition, but if necessary, they will zealously protect their territory.

Birds live for about 10-20 years. There is evidence that some individuals were able to live up to 30 years.

You can distinguish a female from a male by the size of the body, the length and curvature of the nose. The former have higher numbers.

Curlew voice

Male curlews make a long sound that sounds like "kuri-li". They usually sing to mark their territory during nesting.

Some species scream with a trill. There is a version that they can imitate other people's sounds.

Interesting! In English, the name of the bird is pronounced Curlew. This is the same sound that people hear during the breeding process of birds.

bird species

Today, 7 out of 8 studied species exist. Due to unlimited hunting, one of them was completely exterminated.

Curlew types:

• Big. Length 50-60 centimeters, weight 600-1000 grams. The wingspan can reach 100 centimeters. Individuals are the largest of all snipes. In Europe, they are more common than other species. The color of the plumage is beige-brown, gray-brown. On the general background there are blotches of various shapes. It is customary to separate two subspecies. One lives in Europe, the second - in the east of the Urals. Subspecies smoothly pass one into another, sometimes it is impossible to clearly distinguish them.
• Long-billed. Individuals are distinguished by a disproportionately long curved beak. Its size is the same as the whole body. The plumage is brown with patches of white and yellow. Found in a limited area. Seeing the view is rare. Winters in Australia.
• Far Eastern. Wingspan up to 100 centimeters, beak 15-20 centimeters long. The back is dark brown. The feathers show a rusty edge. The belly is lighter, has dark longitudinal streaks. Unlike the large species, it has a dark rump.
• Little Curlew. A miniature representative of the genus grows up to 34 centimeters, weighs 150-175 grams. The plumage has a brown tone, the belly is white. The beak is curved, but shorter than that of relatives. The bird lives in large flocks.
• Average. An individual is 40-46 centimeters long. Males weigh up to 550 grams, and females up to 600 grams. A light longitudinal stripe is visible on the black-brown vertex. There are light eyebrows above the eyes. The general color is gray, variegated. The beak is relatively short, slightly curved downwards. Paws are gray-blue.
• Tahitian. For the first time, an individual was caught by members of the expedition of James Cook. But nesting sites were discovered only after 150 years. Body length 40-44 centimeters, weight 350-550 grams. The beak is 7-9 centimeters long with a pink base and a dark top. In winter, the beak completely darkens. Legs are grey. The upper part of the plumage is dark brown. It shows gray, sandy shades.
• Thin-billed. The body is 40 centimeters long. Earthy gray plumage. It has dark stripes and specks scattered on it. It is this bird that is depicted on the emblem of the all-Russian public organization for the protection of birds SOPR.
• Eskimo. Body length 30 centimeters. The bird was massively found in Canada, in Alaska. Wintered in South America. Very rarely, curlews flew to the UK and neighboring countries.

Sometimes individuals of a particular species may find themselves in unusual places.

Range, habitats

Curlews live in Europe, America, Asia, the Malay Archipelago, New Zealand, Africa, tropical islands of Oceania. Five species nest within the territory of the Russian Federation.

Bodies of water near which birds are found:

• Zeya is a river 1242 kilometers long, a tributary of the Amur. On it is the city of Zeya, Svobodny, Blagoveshchensk. On its territory there is a natural reserve, a hydroelectric power station.
• Evoron is a lake with an area of ​​194 km 2, located in the Khabarovsk Territory. Many birds nest on the banks of the reservoir, including the curlew. It is the most important node during the seasonal migration of birds.
• Vilyui is a river 2650 kilometers long, flows in Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk Territory. Falls into Lena. There are many lakes in the Vilyui basin. The ponds are full of fish.
• The Lower Tunguska is a 2989 km long river that flows into the Yenisei. It flows in Siberia, the Irkutsk region, the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
• The Kamchatka Strait belongs to the Pacific Ocean.

Birds with long beaks live in river valleys, swamps, wet meadows, sea coasts. They need moist places to feed. That's where they nest.

Curlew diet

Birds use their beaks not only to pick up food from the surface of the earth, from the bottom of reservoirs. He serves them as tweezers to extract snails from the house.

Curlews eat a variety of foods:

• insects;
• spiders;
• low-bristle worms;
• shellfish;
• gammaruses - freshwater crustaceans;
• small fish;
• berries (crowberry, blueberry);
• larvae;
• shrimps.

The Tahitian curlew is distinguished by its unique nutrition. He uses not only insects, but also flowers of plants, fruits. If necessary, does not disdain carrion. But the most interesting thing is that individuals feast on the eggs of other birds. The researchers watched as they crack open the shell by dropping the eggs on the ground. Some birds, on the contrary, dropped stones on them.

Interesting! During breeding, the Curlew eats only crowberry. In winter, it is saturated with protein due to food of animal origin.

Reproduction and offspring

Curlews usually reach maturity at two years of age. They fly to summer places and start mating. Usually at the beginning of May. The male rises up, emits a loud whistle. In the sky, he easily glides above the ground. The take-off and gliding process is repeated many times.

The female first sits on the ground, then rises into the air to the satellite. The couple glides over the chosen place, sitting down from time to time on the hillocks. It is on the ground that they mate. If other pairs fly over this territory, conflicts do not arise.

Individuals are inherent in nesting conservatism, that is, they annually choose the same places for nesting. The nest is a small depression in a grassy surface. The clutch contains 4 eggs, which are incubated by both parents in turn. The shell is pale yellow, brown or dark olive in color with dark spots of irregular shape. The chicks hatch by the end of June.

The chicks are born with fluff, the color of which is similar to the color of the eggshell. Their beaks are several centimeters long. In a month they become on the wing.

Interesting! Tahitian curlews are unique in that half of the individuals lose the ability to fly during the molting period. At this time they live in Hawaii

Curlew's natural enemies

Curlews build nests in open areas, so part of the clutches die from spring floods. They are ruined by stray dogs and cats. No less danger to offspring comes from foxes, vipers, otters, harriers. Crows are especially harmful. They gather in flocks and hunt for masonry and its young inhabitants. Birdwatchers note that out of 4 chicks, only one becomes on the wing. This is not due to hunters, but to predatory animals, of which there are too many.

Chicks are very vulnerable, develop slowly. The only thing that saves them is camouflage color. In case of danger, they lie down on the ground, hiding their paws. It's hard to spot them. Parents, meanwhile, try to divert attention to themselves by making loud noises. A predator can be driven away by several individuals at once. But the chick, which stands on high legs, is very easy to notice. The predator purposefully goes to him and no efforts of the parents will help.

Population and species status

Curlews suffer greatly from human activities. They have been hunted for centuries, often uncontrolled. This led to the fact that a large species had to be attributed to those that are close to a vulnerable position.

Far Eastern birds are vulnerable animals. If the situation does not change, they will become endangered. The same applies to long-beaked individuals, of which there are no more than 30 thousand.

Slender-billed birds are on the verge of extinction. They were considered rare back in the 19th century. In the middle of the last century, 800 individuals were recorded in Morocco. Then they were met in quantities of up to 30 pieces.

Eskimo curlews are considered to be critically endangered, but since 1987 not a single individual has been recorded. Therefore, the species can be classified as extinct.

The following factors negatively affect the population:

• immoderate shooting during spring, autumn migrations;
• anxiety during the nesting period by expeditions, tourists, shepherds;
• draining swamps;
• plowing meadows;
• clearing of deciduous forests;
• burning dry grass;
• industrial engineering.

The least fear is the curlew-baby, medium. Species are more modest in size, so hunting for them is not as active.

Curlew harvest is limited. A large view can be shot in the summer-autumn period. But first you need to find it. Hunters note that since the last century they have rarely seen a bird. In addition, she is distinguished by her caution, she does not let people close. More often they can be found during the mating period. But at this time, mining is prohibited.

Curlew meat in cooking

Curlews, due to their caution and scarcity, rarely get to the hunter. They have the most fatty and tasty meat during the autumn departure for the winter. In summer, the bird feeds in the fields. She does not let a person within the distance of a shot. The situation is different on the water, but there it happens at night. Mosquitoes and other midges greatly interfere with the hunting process. In addition, a shot carcass can quickly deteriorate. Sometimes even gutting and salting does not help.

Hunting is more successful when individuals gather in flocks. But it's hard to know when that will happen. It will require daily monitoring of individuals, the study of their habits in a particular area.

The curlew can fly at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, so inexperienced hunters use up all the cartridges in vain, left without prey. You can get into it with a side shot, in pursuit. This process is suitable for gambling hunters who are not looking for easy ways.

Game meat is not just rich in easily digestible protein, it is rich in B vitamins, iron, and fluorine. It not only does not contain excess fat, but also harmful antibiotics and hormones that store poultry is rich in.

Before cooking, the curlew is gutted, stuffed or wrapped in lard. Fry it until cooked, when a thick needle will freely enter the meat. On the hunt, they came up with a method of frying with feathers. The carcass is gutted, salted, a little oil is added inside, coated with clay, and placed in a dying fire. The game is ready when the clay starts to crack. Feathers lag behind with coating, cooked fragrant meat is revealed inside.

Kulen vyaliki (earlier - Pendant vyaliki)

The whole territory of Belarus

Snipe family - Scolopacidae.

In Belarus - N. a. arquata (the subspecies inhabits the entire European part of the species range).

Rare breeding migrant and transit migrant. Slightly more common in Lakeland. Its numbers are declining everywhere, and now it does not settle in every habitable biotope.

Larger than a crow. The largest of our waders, in the form of which the long, arcuate bent down beak is striking in the first place. Male weight 532-900 g, female 745-1000 g. Body length (both sexes) 54-69 cm, wingspan 90-110 cm. Male wing length 29.5-30 cm, tail 10.5-11 cm, tarsus 8 cm, beak, 12-13 cm. Wing length of females 29 cm, tail 11.5 cm, beak 12 cm.

General coloration grey. The plumage of the dorsal side of an adult bird is brownish-gray, densely mottled with longitudinal brown spots. The crown, nape and fore-dorsal are gray with large blackish-brown spots on the trunk and light-brown or buffy edges of feathers. The sides of the head are light gray, the lore is dark brown, and there is a white stripe above the eye. The hindquarters and rump are white, with narrow dark brown spots on the trunk. The chin and throat are white, the neck in front with a poorly developed coating. The chest and sides of the body are creamy white with large lanceolate brown streaks. The middle of the belly is pure white. The undertail coverts are white with dark strokes. Axillary feathers are white with transverse brown stripes. The flight feathers are black-brown, on the inner webs of all the primaries there are whitish spots, on the secondary flight feathers both webs are spotted. The upper wing coverts are brownish with broad whitish feather edging. The rudders are white with transverse brown stripes. The legs are long, strong, gray in color. On both sides of the middle finger and between the bases of the fingers, the development of the membrane is noticeable. The beak is brown, lighter at the base. Young birds differ from adults in a shorter beak.

Typical nesting sites in the northern part of the republic are forest raised bogs, open or overgrown with rare pine forests, often with clear water windows or small overgrown lakes. In Poozerye nests on the so-called "guillemots", i.e. completely open areas, with the presence of large moss tussocks, overgrown with low wild rosemary or marsh myrtle. Sometimes the bird settles on vast swampy lowlands near lakes, on sedge bogs with islands of pine forest, clumps of willow, alder and birch. In Polissya, it inhabits vast lowland and raised bogs, less often - riverine swampy meadows. As a secondary phenomenon, nesting of curlews in fields and drained peatlands has been observed in recent decades.

In spring, it arrives in the second half of March - early April. The voice of the curlew - a drawn-out flute “kuuu-i” - can be heard both during current flights and when the bird is restless in the nest area.

It nests, as a rule, in small sparse colonies, occasionally in single pairs. Nests are usually located openly on flat moss or sedge hummocks, sometimes surrounded by shallow water in waterlogged places. Often the nest can be found in very dry areas overgrown with grass or moss. In Poozerye nests on the top of large moss mounds under the cover of marsh shrubs growing here.

The nest is a flat shallow hole, sparsely lined with dry stems of cotton grass and other sedges, horsetail. Sometimes (depending on the location) pine needles and moss are found in it. In wet areas, the thickness of the nesting material in some cases reaches 7 cm. The diameter of the nest is 19-30 cm; the depth of the tray is 3.5–7 cm, the diameter is 15–19 cm.

A full clutch usually contains 4 pear-shaped eggs. Clutches of 3 or 5 eggs are very rare (as an exception, a clutch of 6 eggs was noted in Europe). In Poozerye, 3–4 eggs were noted in full clutches, on average 3.4 ± 0.24 eggs per clutch.

The egg shell is matte or slightly shiny. Its main background varies from light yellowish gray, olive to yellowish or greenish brown and greenish gray. Surface spots are light or dark brown, sometimes brown. They are distributed evenly or concentrated mainly at the obtuse pole. Deep spotting brownish or light gray. Egg weight 78 g, length 68 mm (61-71 mm), diameter 47 mm (45-48 mm). In Poozerye, egg sizes vary in the ranges: 60.0-70.7x45.3-48.0 mm, on average 65.5±0.8x46.7±0.24 mm.

The bird starts nesting at the end of April. In the north of the country a little later. In Poozerye, nests with clutches were found in the period from May 7 to June 8. Terms of incubation in the Vitebsk region. one nest each: 05/22/2011 (“Gorodnyansky Mokh”) in the clutch there are three fresh eggs (incomplete clutch); June 3 in the same clutch four heavily incubated eggs on the eve of hatching; On June 19, the nest is empty, and an adult bird was very worried nearby, apparently with chicks.

One brood per year. Both birds incubate in turn for 28-30 days. The bird is always extremely cautious (detects the approach of a person who is several hundred meters away) and, in case of danger, leaves the nest, moves away for some distance and takes off (in case of sudden danger it takes off directly from the nest). The behavior of adult birds with flying chicks is different than with non-flying ones. In the first case, the birds fly calmly and silently. With non-flying chicks, curlews with a cry of “kuu-vit, kuu-wee-wee-vit ...” fly into the enemy. In nesting places, they meet from afar and actively attack in the air a harrier or a crow that has flown into their swamp.

The chicks leave the nest on the first day of life; They begin to fly at the age of 5 weeks. In late July - early August, curlews leave their nesting sites in swamps and are found along sandy banks and on the shallows of large rivers and lakes. Resting on sandy islands, curlews like to swim, while entering the water up to their belly.

At this time, the autumn migration begins, which continues throughout August; individual small groups of curlews are also observed in September. They fly singly or in flocks of up to 7 birds.

It feeds on animal food: insects, molluscs, worms, and small frogs. At the end of summer it eats berries.

The main enemy of the curlew in raised bogs is the golden eagle;

The number of the curlew in Belarus at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century. estimated at 950–1200 breeding pairs. At present, the population of the species is relatively stable and amounts to 700-1000 breeding pairs.

Not every hunter knows this largest of our waders. The reason for this is the relative rarity and extreme caution of the bird. When you first see a curlew quite close, you will immediately guess that it is him. This is a large gray-brown bird, with long narrow pointed wings, a long neck and a beak bent down, larger than a crow (probably the size of a crow), slender in build, light in color.

In spring, curlews arrive early. The snow has not completely melted in the fields yet, and flocks of birds, sometimes up to 30-40 individuals, importantly walk along the thawed hillocks and with long beaks deftly, like with tweezers, pull out sleepy insects from last year's withered grass - spiders, beetles, butterflies, worms.

Most often, hunters see curlews during the display period. Sitting with a decoy duck in a hut in a puddle in the middle of a vast field or meadow, on a grouse lek or in a geese nest in a sphagnum swamp, we often observe lek flights and hear the mating songs of these birds.

Sometimes up to 5-6 couples gather in one field or meadow, and all morning, afternoon, and even in deep twilight, pleasant loud and sonorous flute whistles and trills of birds are heard. The male takes off from the ground and, rarely flapping his wings, uttering a variety of iridescent trills, circles in a planning flight over the place where his chosen one sits. The female also rises into the air, and then they plan together over their chosen place, often sitting down on hillocks with sparse vegetation. This is where they mate. Other pairs are playing on the same field, often flying over "foreign" territory, but there are no conflicts.

Curlews are monogamous. Pairs formed after arrival stay together for the entire breeding period, equally participating in incubation of eggs and subsequent rearing of chicks. Often several pairs of birds nest in the same field or meadow. Nests are located in a small hole lined with blades of grass. A couple of times I managed to find them among the low rare grass-standing.

There are four eggs in a full clutch. They are olive-brown in color, with large brownish spots, the size of a chicken, but with a more pointed end. The incubating bird does not let it get close, but leaves the nest and, having run back 50-100 meters, takes off with an alarming cry. The second bird from the pair immediately joins the incubating one and starts circling over the object that caused the alarm with loud cries.

Curlews nesting nearby also take to the wing and together try to drive off the troublemaker until he retires. These can be people, cows, wild boars or land predators - foxes, polecats, cats, dogs, as well as representatives of birds, especially crows.

Hatched chicks are very vulnerable, as they grow rather slowly, gaining the ability to fly only after 25-30 days. The only way to stay alive is to lie low when danger arises. The chick bends its long legs, lies down among the grass, draws its head into the body and freezes. Protective coloration and complete immobility often help to avoid danger. However, a large feeding chick on high legs, which is in constant motion, is visible from afar. Noticing him or quickly finding him on a fragrant trail, a dog left without a leash will not miss the chance and crush the found baby. With alarming cries, the parents fly over her, trying to take her away or drive her away, but this does not always work out.

In the summer of 2011, I was able to follow the fate of four chicks from a brood that was only 300 meters from the outermost houses of the village. Only one chick rose to the wing, the rest of the chicks died. Almost every hour in the morning, afternoon and evening, alarming cries of adult birds were heard right from the street, trying to drive away from the chicks either a cat, or a dog, or a person.
In autumn, curlews fly to Africa, India, England and the Mediterranean for wintering rather early, and by the end of September you will not meet them in the European part of Russia.

In previous years, curlews were not specially hunted because of their extreme caution, they only caught birds that accidentally flew into the shot during the summer-autumn hunting for waterfowl. Nevertheless, their numbers have been steadily declining over the past two decades, and since 2000 they (as well as the slender-billed, or small, Far Eastern) are listed in the Red Book of Russia, otherwise, with further action of negative factors, they, as a species, may fall into the category in a short time. "Endangered".

And it was not hunters (at least not Russian ones) that played a decisive role in this, but habitat degradation, the constant disturbance of nesting birds in connection with anthropogenic development of territories, an increase in the number of predatory mammals, as well as gray crows, magpies and crows.