Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
- Tags
- Field notes/sketch; No bird
Media notes
Slender-billed Curlew - Eregli, 4/6/1986; sketch and excerpt from my field notes
Observation details
Seen well in flight with a flock of 6 Eurasian Curlews; as they flew toward me, I noticed that one of the curlews was noticeably smaller and much more contrastingly patterned, with a somewhat shorter bill; as they approached, the SBCU separated from the group and flew directly over me. Dark primaries contrasting strongly with very pale secondaries, rapid wing beat, bird appeared rather pale overall, slender body, tail rather pale whitish. Didn't get a good look at the flanks, but the sides seemed more spotted, rather than streaky as in Eur. Curlew. The bird called a couple of times, a soft "cu-eeh," shorter and softer than Eur. Curlew call and every different from Whimbrel, which was further ruled out by wing pattern, pale tail and lack of darkish cap/eye line. This sighting was accepted by the RSPB Slender-billed Curlew Project and included in their database (SBCDatabasemay09_tcm9-199251); also accepted in Kirwan, Boyla, et al., Birds of Turkey (Helm, 2008).
Technical information
- Dimensions
- 1158 pixels x 693 pixels
- Original file size
- 164.77 KB