Curlew Sandpiper

Basic Description

Curlew Sandpipers are elegant shorebirds with a gracefully curved bill, long legs, and slim shape. Breeding adults are rich brick-red or deep chestnut, while nonbreeding birds stick to basic gray and white. Adults spend just a few short weeks at remote Siberian nesting sites before returning to nonbreeding grounds stretching from Africa to Australasia. There, Curlew Sandpipers often gather in large flocks on tidal mudflats, salt pans, sewage lagoons, and beaches, using their long bills to probe for worms, molluscs, crustaceans, and other invertebrates.