Long-billed Curlew

Status One old sight record. Blakiston and Bland (1857) list it as "very rare" and Jones (1885) states that "this species, which was formerly very common, has now become exceedingly rare." There is other evidence that this species regularly visited northeastern North America in the first half of the nineteenth century. The only explicit report is by Gilpin (1882a), who stated that in September 1870 he saw one at Windsor. There are no twentieth-century records.

Remarks Larger than the Whimbrel (50-65 cm vs. 38-44 cm), its bill is proportionately much longer and more strongly down-curved than the Whimbrel's. It is cinnamon brown above, streaked with dark brown, and ashy buff below, with pale, unmarked cinnamon-brown wing linings. Its call is a musical curlee. Primarily a bird of the western plains, it is still an occasional visitor to the east coast of the United States.