The Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) is Europe's largest wader, a stately, brown-mottled bird instantly recognisable by its very long, evenly downcurved bill, measuring 12-15 cm, typically longer in females than males. Measuring 50-60 cm overall with a wingspan of up to a metre and weighing 600-1,100 g, it shows evenly streaked plumage without bold head markings, and a bright white wedge up the back visible in flight against a pale underside.
Its call, a mournful, ringing "kuur-li", is one of the defining sounds of Swedish coastal meadows and bogs, heard year-round but most often during the breeding season, when it is joined by a dramatic display: the male climbs into an undulating song flight over his territory and delivers a long, rising, bubbling trill, "trrrrr-kuru-kuru-kurli", often the very first sign that curlews have returned in March or April. Eurasian Curlews breed throughout Sweden except the mountains, on large bogs, coastal meadows and open farmland, arriving in early spring and departing again by July-August to winter in Western Europe and North Africa. The nest is a shallow scrape on a tussock, holding four eggs incubated for 27-29 days; both parents defend the nest and chicks vigorously, mobbing crows and birds of prey with persistent alarm calls. The long bill lets the curlew probe deep into soft ground for earthworms, insects, small crustaceans and snails that shorter-billed waders cannot reach, with the longer-billed female able to feed even deeper than the male. Drainage of bogs and agricultural intensification have driven a sharp decline, and although the species remains globally Near Threatened, the Swedish population of 10,000-20,000 pairs is classed as Endangered.
Read about this species in Swedish →