Endangered
Far Eastern Curlew
Numenius madagascariensis
Far Eastern Curlew is a shorebird in the family Scolopacidae (order Charadriiformes) — Numenius madagascariensis, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
It is mostly brown, differentiated from other curlews by its plain, unpatterned brown underwing, and brown rump. The extremely long bill, at 12.8–20.1 cm (5.0–7.9 in) in length, rivals the bill size of the closely related long-billed curlew as the longest bill for a sandpiper. It overlaps in range with the eastern subspecies of the Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata orientalis, from that it is most easily told by its brown rump and lower back, rather than white.
It is not only the largest curlew but probably the largest sandpiper, at 60–66 cm (24–26 in) in length and 110 cm (43 in) across the wings. The weight is 390–1,350 g (0.86–2.98 lb), that is equalled by the Eurasian curlew. Females are on average about 100 g heavier than males.
Published measurements include mass about 807.9.
Range and habitat
Its breeding habitat is composed of marshy and swampy wetlands and lakeshores.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
On its breeding grounds the Far Eastern curlew consumes insects, such as larvae of beetles and flies, and amphipods. During migration it also feeds on berries.
In the non-breeding season, it consumes marine invertebrates, preferring crabs and small molluscs but also taking other crustaceans and polychaetes.
In crisis
As of 2024, there are an estimated 20,000 – 35,000 mature individuals in the world. Formerly classified as least concern by the IUCN until 2009, it was found to have been rarer than previously believed and thus its status was uplisted to Vulnerable in 2010 and subsequently to Endangered in 2015, where it currently remains. In Australia its status under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is "critically endangered".
Its population decline has been linked to the massive tidal flat reclamations by China, North Korea and South Korea along the coasts of the Yellow Sea, that have caused a greater than 65% loss of mudflats where the Far Eastern curlew makes stopovers.
Far Eastern Curlew is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Far Eastern curlew, Wikidata item Q76496. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
