Long-Billed Curlews

The Pinocchios
of the sandpiper world, they
winter here like me!

~ carliewired

I was at the Yuma Civic Center today and discovered a flock of long-billed curlews scouring the lawn there. They seemed to be finding lots of tidbits in the well- manicured lawn. When they rose up as a flock they made the same noise as seagulls.

These are rather large birds with a beak about a third of their body. Some nest on the ground in the grasslands near my neighbourhood back in British Columbia. The curlew is the largest nesting sandpiper in North America (20-26 inches) with the longest bill of any shorebird (5-8 1/2 inches). They feed as a flock. On shorelines, they probe for crabs and small invertebrates. In the grasslands, they live on grasshoppers, beetles and other insects.