Bird name:

Bristle-thighed Curlew

Numenius tahitiensis

Order

CHARADRIIFORMES

Family

Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)

Code 4

BTCU

Code 6

NUMTAH

ITIS

176604

Breeding Location:

Tundra

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Rare

Egg Color:

Olive buff marked with brown

Number of Eggs:

Incubation Days:

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Lined with grasses or leaves.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Bristle-thighed Curlew: Large, brown-streaked shorebird with long decurved bill. Eye-line is dark and contrasting eyebrow is white. Rump is cinnamon-brown. Bristle-like feathers at base of legs are inconspicuous. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Bristle-thighed Curlew: Breed in a limited area of western Alaska, on the lower Yukon River and the central Seward Peninsula. Spends winters on a wide range of small islands in the south Pacific, including Hawaiian Islands, Mariana Islands, Micronesia, Fiji, Samoa, and French Polynesia. Preferred habitats include quiet, undisturbed beaches and coastal grassy fields and pastures.

Breeding and Nesting

Bristle-thighed Curlew: Four olive buff eggs marked with brown are laid in a ground depression lined with moss and leaves, usually built directly beneath dwarf willow shrubs. Both parents incubate the eggs for about 25 days; performs distraction displays and outright attacks on potential predators to defend eggs and young.

Foraging and Feeding

Bristle-thighed Curlew: Eats worms, grubs, beetles, crabs, maggots, and eggs of nesting seabirds. In order to crack the thick shells of large seabird eggs, sometimes employs rocks as tools, a rare occurrence in the bird world. While preparing for migration, feeds on berries and insects on Yukon Delta.

Vocalization

Bristle-thighed Curlew: Call is a hurried, rather curtailed "pee-uu-ee."

Similar Species

Bristle-thighed Curlew: Whimbrel lacks cinnamon-brown patches on rump and uppertail.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Eyebrow

Also called the supercilicum or superciliary it is the arch of feathers over each eye.

Rump

The area between the uppertail coverts and the back of the bird.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America