Little Curlew (Numenius minutus)
About the Little Curlew
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. The word "curlew" is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been influenced by the Old French corliu, "messenger", from courir, "to run". It was first recorded in 1377 in Langland's Piers Plowman. The genus name Numenius is from Ancient Greek noumenios, a bird mentioned by Hesychius. It is associated with the curlews because it appears to be derived from neos, "new", and mene, "moon", referring to the crescent-shaped bill. The species name is from Latin minutus, "small".
A real field recording of the Little Curlew. Press play and focus on the rhythm and pitch of each phrase.
Listen
Our streaming copies are mirrored from the original xeno-canto file and transcoded to 96 kbps mono — a modification, so we note it here; the licence for each recording is named in its credit below.
1 recording on this page · licensed CC BY-SA ×1 · mirrored on this server, free for commercial reuse · recorded in Australia, China, Mongolia, Russia · xeno-canto lists 14 recordings for this species in total.
Similar species
- Bristle-thighed CurlewNumenius tahitiensisprofile
- Eurasian CurlewNumenius arquatarecording
- Eurasian WhimbrelNumenius phaeopusrecording
- Far Eastern CurlewNumenius madagascariensisprofile
- Hudsonian WhimbrelNumenius hudsonicusrecording
- Long-billed CurlewNumenius americanusprofile
Species grouped by shared genus, family and range.