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Keys to Identifying Little Curlew

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Keys to Identifying Little Curlew MIGRATION PATTERN Keys to identifying Little Curlew Little Curlewin winterquarters at Cairns, Queensland,Australia, November 1975. Photo/Toma• Pain Gardner Not surprisingly,no ornithologisthas seen both the Little and Eskimo curlews nutus)is a speciesheld by some This new speciesFor North heauthorsLittleto Curlew be conspecific(Numenius with mi- in the field. The only detailedpublished the Eskimo Curlew (N. borealis). It America can be readily comparisonis that based by Farrand breeds in northeastern Siberia (Labutin identified in flight and (1977) on the skins of both. He conclud- and others, 1982) and winters in Austra- producesa variety of vocal ed thatthe two formsare separablein the lasia. This speciesis regardedas "rare, and instrumental sounds field under ideal conditions, and writes: little-studied and threatened," rather than "The Eskimo Curlew is a more boldly "endangered,"in the U.S.S.R. (Banni- and coarselymarked bird, with heavier kov, 1978). Brett A. Lane, the wader streakingon the sides of the face and studiescoordinator for the Royal Austra- neck, and dark chevrons on the breast and lasian Ornithologists' Union (pets. flanks;the Little Curlewhas a relatively comm., December1982), saysthe spe- Jeffery Boswail morefinely streakedface and neck, and cies "possiblynumbers many thousands the breast is streaked rather than marked (10,000+ ?)." and with chevrons,the chevronsbeing few in The Little Curlew was recently ob- number and confined to the flanks. In served for the first time in North Amer- Boris N. Veprintsev bothspecies the underwing covertsand ica. The species'closest breeding ground axillaries are barred with dark brown, but to North America is only about 1250 in the Eskimo Curlew these feathers are a mileswest of the nearestpoint of main- rich cinnamon, while in the Little Curlew land Alaska. theyare a muchpaler buff or sandycolor. Volume 39, Number 3 251 Finally,the pale pinkish area at the base case it resembledthe beginningof a of the lower mandible is more extensive Whimbrel's call. The only other call in the Little Curlew, reachingto or be- heardwas a trill, whichwas given while yond the middle of the bill, whereasin Raineswas stalkingthe bird in orderto the EskimoCurlew this light area occu- obtainphotographs." piesless than half the lengthof the bill." The voice is better describedby Con- don and McGill (1967) in their excellent F eare'sdescription (1973) of the Little little book on wader identification as "a Curlew from his field notes is worth softmusical te-te-te when feeding; a rath- quoting."Infiight, thisbird wasimmedi- er harsh tchew tchew tchew when ately distinguishablefrom all palearctic alarmed."The only really detailedde- shorebirdsby its resemblanceto a small, scriptionof the vocabularyof the Little 4'. sandy-coloredWhimbrel (N. phaeopus), Curlew,based on experienceaway from butcompletely lacking white on therump the breedinggrounds, is that of Hem- and back." mingsenand Guildal (1968) from China Regardingthe call of the Little Cur- and is well worth quoting •n full: "N. lew, Feare observes:"When flushed, the minutusmay call similarly to N. phaeo- birduttered a fairly faint but harshcroak, pus variegatus[Whimbrel] but the call sometimesdi-or-tri syllabic, in which (call I) is usuallysofter and usuallyonly i 2 3 7 3 1 Figure 1. Sonagramsof the calls of the Little Curlew: 1. Mewingcall of bird on nestused to summonmate, who comes in closer(sound referred to in secondparagraph of Labutinand others [1982]). 2. Ar•¾te.tycall utteredtwice (no. I in Labutinand others[1982]). 3. Fright call of bird flushedfrom nest(no. 3 in Labutinand others[1982]). Horizontalscale: seconds; vertical scale: Photos/Richard G. Smith kHz. From Veprintsevand Zablotskaya(1982). 252 American Birds, Fall 1985 Little Curlewspresumably on migration in November 1979, BougainvilleIsland, Papua, New Gumea. Photo/Don Hadden 3-6 syllables,though I haveheard up to 9 Veprintsev(1982). It is worth remark- (or more?)syllables, as against7-11 or theecordings breedingofthe groundsspecies' appearvoice onas ing that this speciesproduces not only perhapssometimes more syllables,yet spectogramsin thepapers by Labutinand vocal,but alsoinstrumental "drumming" most often 7, in N. p. variegatus.And others(1982) andby Veprintsevand Zab- soundswhile in flight. Labutinand others the rate is slower, usually 4-5 sec., 1otskaya(1982); also as recordingson (1982) suggestedthat the instrumental thoughI havecounted as few as 34, and one of three phonographrecords by soundwas "apparentlycreated with pri- as many as 6-7 per sec., whereasN. p. variegatusemits about 10 syllablesper sec. The pitch may go slightly up and I' : t ; I II ',,' ; t : I I • downduring the call. "Quitedifferent from any call ofN. p. variegatusis, however,another call (call II), whichmay on the one hand,be con- 1- 2 3 4 sidereda version of call I, but which on the other hand, is so characteristicthat I believe it is distinctive. Most often it con- sismof 4 tonesrising in pitch very much like the do mi sol do in a musicalscale; or 3 4 if notexactly like sucha scale,there is at 3 leasta jump of 2-3 toneintervals between each of the successiverising syllables (heardMay 14, 21, 22, and August22, andSeptember 5). OnceI havenoted up 1 2 4 to 7 syllablesin sucha risingscale (Au- gust21, 1944),but I cannotsay whether the intervalsin pitch thenwere lessthan in the4 syllablecall II. The riseeven in a 4 syllablecall may bemore irregular, and x • 3 4 • it is possiblethat there are all sortsof Figure2. Sonagramsof advertisingsounds of Little Curlew:1. Bubblingcurlew-type song (no. 4 gradualtransitions to the plain, moreN. inLabutin and others [1982]). 2. Displayflight song(also called the fluting trill) ffirstpart of no. p. variegatus-likecall I. A third kind of 6 of Labutinand others[1982]). 3. Instrumental"drum" (secondpart of no. 6 of Labutinand call (call III) vee-u vee-u was noted in others[1982]). 4. Displayflight song with flute and trill, i.e., part of 2 & I together(first part of flight (August13, 1944)." no. 6 and no. 4 of Labutin and others[1982]). From Veprintsevand Zablotskaya(1982). Volume 39, Number 3 253 manes and tall feathers" It is most un- •ngs at the British Library of Wildlife GAVRIN, V F,I A DOGUSHIN, M N likelythat the feathers of bothwings and Sounds,NSA, 29 Exhibition Road, Lon- KORELOV and M. A. KUZMINA. 1962 don SW7 2AS, U.K. Feare has an 8mm The Birds of Kazakhastan, 2 (Russian) tall wouldbe usedor adaptedfor sound Alma Ata. productionby any one species.In the film of the Seychellesbird. The color HEMMINGSEN, A.M. and J. A. GUIL- caseof the Little Curlew, neitherflight reversal master of the 16mm film and a DAL. 1968. Observations on birds •n feathersnor•rectrices appear to have been. printfrom a colorintermediate negative northeasternChina. II Spolia Zoolog•ca modifiedfor soundproduction. John Far- alongwith all theoriginal tape recordings Musei Hauniensis 28: 1-326. randkindly examined 18 male, 17 female areheld at theLibrary of Wildlife Sounds HUME, R. A. and K. ALLSOPP. 1982 Re- and one unsexed N. minutus and five at Puschino. cent reports.Brit. Birds 75: 544. LABUTIN, Y. V., V. V. LEONOVITCH and male and two female and 13 unsexed N. B. N. VEPRINTSEV. 1982. The L•ttle borealis from the American Museum of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Curlew, Numenius minutus, in Siberia NaturalHistory. None of the wingsand Ibis 124: 302-319. tall feathersshowed adaptation for sound MOON, S. J. 1983. Little Whimbrel: new to Thanksare due to the photographers production;the featherswere similarin Britain and Ireland.'Brit. Birds 76 438- andto Mary RoseGordon of theNational 445. shapeto thoseof a typicalWhimbrel. The PhotographicIndex of AustralianWild- SCHRAM, B. 1985. Mohoney's Curlew tall feathersof Common Snipe (Galli- life. Mrs. JoanHall-Craggs prepared the Birding 17: 15-18. nago gallinago), and Pin-tailed Snipe sonagramsused by Veprintsev and STETTENHEIM, P. 1976. Structuraladapta- (G. stenura),examined at the sametime tions of feathers. Proc. 16th lnt Orn Zab10tskaya(1982). Ron Kettle,curator showedclear adaptation to soundproduc- Congr.: 385-401. of theBritish Library of Wildlife Sounds, tion. How the Little Curlew makesits jet- VEPRINTSEV, B. N. 1982. "Birds of the meticulouslychecked the paper. planesound apparently cannot be deter- Soviet Union: a soundguide." (Waders stilts,shanks, snipes, curlews) One 30cm minedmorphologically. This is alsothe 331/3rpm disc, no. C90-18025/6. Melo- casewith the instrumentaldrumming of REFERENCES diya, All-Union Studioof SoundRecord- the Dunlin (Calidris alpina) and the in- ANDERSSON, G. 1971. First recordof Little ing, 32 SmolenskSquare, Moscow 200 strumental"booming" of the Common Whimbrelin Norway andEurope (Norwe- __ and M. M. ZABLOTSKAYA. 1982 Nighthawk(Chordeiles minor) (Stetten- gian, Englishsummary). Sterna 10: 63- Acousticsignalling of the Little Curlew, heim, 1976). However, sincethe sound 64. Numeniusminutus Gould. (Russianw•th BANNIKOV, A. G. 1978. Red Data Book English summary). 18pp booklet Pus- is similar to that producedby the tail chino. feathersof the Pin-tailedSnipe, it would U.S.S.R.U.S.S.R. Ministry of Agricul- ture (Russianand English). --c/o British Library of seemlikely that the Little Curlew also CONDON, H. T. and A. R. McGILL. 1967. usesits tail fe.athers. A Field Guide to the Waders, 4th edition. Wildlife Sounds, Copiesof anEnglish translation by M. Bird Observers' Club, Melbourne. National Sound Archtve, G. Wilson of the sleeve notes of the Ve- FARRAND, J. 1977. What to look for: Eski- 29 ExhibitionRoad, printsevdiscs may be obtainedfrom Jef- mo and Little Curlewscompared. Ameri- London SW7 2AS, U.K. (Boswall), fery Boswall,as may an Englishtransla- can Birds 31(2): 137-138. -Library of Wtldltfe tion of Veprintsev and Zablotskaya FEARE, C. J. 1973. Numenius minutus, Sounds, Falco subbuteo,and Caprimulguseuro- Instituteof Biophysics,U.S S R (1982). Also, a 16mm color film of the paeus in the Seychelles.Bull. Br. Or- bird in northeasternSiberia is deposited nithol. Cl. 93: 99-101. Academyof Science,Puschino-on-Oka, along with first generationcopies of a ß1979. Ecology of Bird Island.Atoll Res.
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