General

Curlew Sandpiper: Medium-sized sandpiper with mottled rufous, white, and black upperparts. Head, neck and breast are rich rufous while vent and undertail coverts are white. Bill is long and slightly decurved. Sexes are similar. Winter adult has uniformly gray upperparts, mottled gray breast, and white eye-line, and lacks rufous. Juvenile is similar to winter adult but with orange-brown wash and scaled upperparts.

Range and Habitat

Curlew Sandpiper: Breeds in Eurasia and very rarely in northern Alaska. Rare but regular migrant to the east coast, less common on west coast; spends winters mainly in the Old World. Nests on tundra; in migration stays on estuaries, lagoons, and lakes.

Breeding and Nesting

Curlew Sandpiper: Four cream, yellow, or olive eggs spotted with brown and black are laid in a ground depression on tundra. Eggs are incubated for 21 days by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Curlew Sandpiper: Diet consists of snails, worms, and insects. Forages by probing mud rapidly with its bill, usually working away from others; wades to belly-deep.

Vocalization

Curlew Sandpiper: Call is a pleasant, liquid "chirrup" or "chirrip" in flight, or a "wick-wick-wick" in alarm. Male sings while flying on breeding grounds.

Similar Species

Curlew Sandpiper: Rufous plumage is diagnostic. Dunlin has a decurved bill but lacks white rump. Stilt Sandpiper has green legs and thicker bill. Other similar-sized shorebirds lack decurved bill.