Sergey Dereliev

Short- to long-distance migrant, breeding in the Palearctic (ssp. arquata in Europe, orientalis east of the Urals). Nominate subspecies breeding from Spain to Fennoscandia and Russia, wintering along European and N African coasts. A few orientalis visit E Mediterranean coasts. There have been long-term declines in breeding numbers across Europe, so the speices is listed as Near Threatened at the global scale (Brown 2015).

Season of assessment

B

Population trendDecreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		405000-553000,470000
Red List categoryNT
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Eurasian Curlew

Migration movements are mainly along a NE-SW axis, individuals wintering in W and SW Europe coming from W, C and N Europe, including N Russia (Bocher et al. 2022). As few are ringed in E Europe, including Russia, the flyways used by these birds are unclear, although the Russian-breeding population may migrate S to the Mediterranean.

Recoveries by Condition for Eurasian Curlew

Hunting stopped in Great Britain (1982), Denmark (1994; Laursen 2005), Ireland (2012), with a partial (2008 onwards), then complete (from 2020), moratorium in France. Most recoveries from these countries are of dead birds, as are those from Spain and Italy - leading to heterogeneity in regional recovery rates. There are few resightings of colour-marked birds. Most live recoveries are on the  breeding grounds.

Annual Movements for Eurasian Curlew

Fennoscandian birds reach breeding sites from Apr, and are back on wintering sites from Jun (mainly Jul). In C Europe, birds arrive on breeding sites in Mar, and are on wintering sites from Jul. In SW Europe, the first breeders arrive at the end of Feb. First-calendar year birds migrate later than adults, leaving from mid-Jul to Aug, sometimes migrating later. Recent data from satellite tags (e.g. Jiguet et al. 2021) show that Curlew wintering in W France migrate to Russia, Belarus and Finland, but also Austria, Belgium, Sweden and the Baltic states, arriving in mid-Apr-early May, migrating across the continent in less than a week.  They left mostly in Jun, reaching wintering sites mid-July, having taken a coastal route with stopovers in the Wadden Sea and taking 2-3 weeks.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Eurasian Curlew

Birds wintering in W Europe (Netherlands, France and Spain) are mainly encountered breeding in Fennoscandia, N Russia and C Europe. Breeders from Fennoscandia and the Baltic states migrate SW to winter mainly in the British Isles, the Wadden Sea and France. Breeders from central Europe, including Germany and the Netherlands, are found on the Wadden Sea and European Atlantic coasts, including the British Isles, down to Spain. Breeders from France and Belgium winter from France to Morocco, mainly along the Atlantic coast of Iberia. Breeders from the British Isles winter mainly on British and Irish coasts, although some also cross the Channel.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Bocher, P., et al. 2022 . Limitrack researcj project. https://limitrack.univ-lr.fr/courlis/
Brown, D.J.2015 . International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata arquata, N. a. orientalis and N. a. suschkini.
Jiguet F, Bocher P, Kruckenberg H, Kämpfer S, Debenest E, Lorrillière R, Rousseau P, Szajda M, Düttmann H.2021 . Joint flight bouts but short-term association in migrating Eurasian curlews. Bird Study 86 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2021.1962805) : 38–46
Laursen, K.2005 . Curlews in the Wadden Sea - effects of shooting protection in Denmark. Wadden Sea Ecosystem 20: 173–183

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