Allen Press The Ecology and Behavior of the Long-Billed Curlew in Southeastern Washington Author(s): Julia N. Allen Source: Wildlife Monographs, No. 73, The Ecology and Behavior of the Long-Billed Curlew in Southeastern Washington (Oct., 1980), pp. 3-67 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Wildlife Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3830659 . Accessed: 27/08/2013 17:50 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley, Wildlife Society, Allen Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Wildlife Monographs. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.193.8.24 on Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:50:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions This content downloaded from 128.193.8.24 on Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:50:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ' r t FRO,SITISPIECE. Adultmale long-billedcurlew. (Photo by MaryM. Tremaine) This content downloaded from 128.193.8.24 on Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:50:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF THE LONG-BILLEDCURLEW IN SOUTHEASTERNWASHINGTON Julia N. Allen Battelle,Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Ecological Sciences Department,Richland, Washington 99352 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 Ground-Calling 36 Objective 6 Scraplng 36 Status of theLong-billed Curlew 6 Tossing --------------36 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 7 Courtship-Run 37 TAXONOMYOF THE LONG-BILLED CURLEW 7 Shaking 37 DESCRIPTION OF STUDY AREA 7 Mounting 37 GeneralDescriptior 7 Copulation 38 PhysicalFeatures 8 PostcopulatoryBehavior 38 Vegetation ---- 8 MIGRATIONAND BREEDING CHRONOLOGY 38 Weather 9 ARRIVALAND TERRITORIALITY 39 SpecificStudy Sites 9 DAILY ROUTINE - ------- 42 PROCEDURES AND METHODS 12 SOLICITATIONAND INITIAL PAIR ScientificNames 12 FORMATION 43 Summaryof Records 12 COURTSHIP, MATINGAND PRELIMINARY StudyAreas 14 NESTING 44 Habit(ltAnalysis 14 NESTING 45 WeatherData 14 Nest Site Selection 45 Observationson CurlewBehavior 14 Nest Constructionand Materials 46 Nest Study --------- 15 Scrape Size - -----------------46 Capturingand Banding 15 Nest Site Characteristics 46 Censusing 15 Nest Density 48 Weightsand Measurements 15 EGG LAYING 49 PredationStudy 16 LayingBehavior 49 Sex and Age Determination 17 ClutchInitiation and LayingIntertals 49 Duta Analysis 17 ClutchSize and Egg Description 50 PLUMAGE,MORPHOLOGY, AND SEXUAL Egg Losses and RenestingAttempts 50 MATURITY 17 INCUBATION 51 Plumage ---- 17 Behavior 52 Weightsand Measurements 19 Responsesto Disturbances 54 Age at FirstBreeding 21 NestingSuccess 56 DISTRIBUTION 21 HATCHING 56 BreedingRange 22 Behavior 57 WinterRange 22 BROOD PERIOD 58 BREEI)ING POPULATIONNUMBERS 23 Nest Departure 58 MAINTENANCEBEHAVIOR 24 Brooding 58 ComfortMovements 24 Behavior 58 Resting 27 Territoriality 61 Feeding ---------------------------28 Responsesto Disturbances 61 LOCOMOTION 30 Accidents,Injuries, and Mortality 62 AGONISTIC DISPLAYS AND POSTURES 31 STAGINGAND DEPARTURE 63 Mild Interactions 31 LITERATURE CITED 66 ViolentInteractions 34 APPENDIX INTERSPECIFIC INTERACTIONS 34 List of Common and ScientificNames of SEXUAL DISPLAYS AND POSTURES 35 PlantsMentioned in the Text 67 Bounding-SKKFlight 35 This content downloaded from 128.193.8.24 on Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:50:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 6 WILDLIFE NIONOGIAPHS INTRODUCTION ordsof long-billed curlews in those areas. Itis hopedthis information willbe useful The long-billedcurlew Numenius toagencies or individuals responsible for americanus is thelargest of the shore- thepreservation ofthe long-billed cur- birdsand yet is oneof North Americas lewand its habitat. lesserknown bird species. Its life historyS ecologyand behavior have until recent- ly,received little attention. The paucity Statusof the Long-billed Curlew ofknowledge about the long-billed cur- Atone time, the long-billed curlew oc- lewrelates to its isolated and heretofore curred in large numbers over most of the remoteranges and to its status as a non- prairieregions of the United States and gamespecies; nongame wildlife have southernCanada. However, by the early onlyrecently begun to receivemanage- 1900s the species had already declined mentconsideration from governmental markedly. That reduction was a resultof agencies.The breeding range is restrict-(1) overzealoussport hunters, who took ed to scatteredlocations in thewestern advantage of the cllrlew's natmre of re- UnitedStates and parts of eastern Wash- turningto cireleover wounded com- ingtonstill provide suitable nesting hab- rades(2) markethunting (curlew wings itat. brought74¢ apiece in 1900,Stone 1901)> Thereis littlepublished information and (3) the"reclamation" ofvast areas of on the distributionand ecologyof the theirformer breeding range for farming long-billedcurlew, and until recently al- andranching (Wolf 1931 Sugden1933). mostall ofits known biology was based Today,curlews are restricted toscattered on fairlygeneral works written around populationsinthe West. They are rarely theturn of the century (e.g.> Bailey 1904 encounteredeast of the Mississippi Riv- Bent1907; Cameron 1907; Dawson 1909; er,whereas formerly they were a com- Dice 1918; Ferry1910; Grinnel]and montransient along the Atlantic Coast. Hunt1929; Oberholser 1918; Shufeldt The numbers observed on marshes flats 1913;Silloway 1902, 1909 Wickershamand fieldstoday represent a eorlcentra- 1902).More sophisticated long-billed tion in a restrictedrange rather than an curlewstudies are becomingmore nu- inereasein the number of birds (Sudgers merous(e.g., Campbell 1972> Forsythe 1933). Changing conditions in landuse 1967,1970, 1971, 1972, 1973; Graul 1971, southof the United States where some McCallumet al. 1977;Sadler and Maher curlewswinter have undoubtedlyalso 1976;Timken 1969)> but as wasnoted by contributedto theirreduced numbers. Palmer(1967) and Pettingill (1968)> there Iong-billedcurlews nest from southern is stillscant information on their breed- * 1 1 BritishColumbia, Alberta Saskatche- ng oenavlor. wanXand Manitobasouthward to Utah NewMexico, and Texas. They no longer Objective nestin Michigan,Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois Iowa, easternNebraska and The objectiveof this study was to ex- Kansas(American Ornithologists Union aminein depththe nesting ecology and 1957,Oberholser 1918). They winter behaviorof the long-billed curlew on a fromCalifornia? western Nevada Texasy breedingarea relatively free of disrup- and Louisiana southward toBaja Califor- tivehuman activity. Two summersof nia,Oaxaca7 Mexico, and Guatemalaw and fieldworkwere devoted to that endn and aIso fromSouth Carolina to Florida in 1976a postbreeding season survey of (AmericanOrnithologists Union 1957). themajor National Wildlife Refuges in Othermembers ofthe genus NuinenX4s Washington,southern Idaho, Utah Ne- in NorthAmerica are the whimbrel Nu- vadaSCalifornia, and Oregonenlarged menius phaeopus, the eskimo curlew N. thescope by providing unpublished rec- borealisand the bristle-thighed curlew This content downloaded from 128.193.8.24 on Tue, 27 Aug 2013 17:50:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE LONG-BILLEDCURLEW IN SOUTHEASTERNWASHINGTON Allen 7 N. tahitiensis.On rareoccasions, Euro- NORCUSLaboratory Graduate Partici- peancurlews N. arquatamay be sightedpant Program. Battelle, Pacific Northwest on theAtlantic coast, but they are dis- Laboratories,Ecological Sciences De- placedmigrants and notnative to the partmentprovided the use oftheir facil- UnitedStates. It is interestingtocompare ities and equipment on theArid Lands therelative abundance of the whimbrel, Ecology Reserve, Hanford National En- eskimoand long-billedcurlews today vironmentalResearch Park. withtheir status 100 years ago. At that I thankthe personnel at Battellewho time,the whiInbrel was the rarest of the providedtheir assistance and coopera- 3; today,it is themost common. The es- tion.I alsothank the U.S. Fish and Wild- kimocurlew is virtuallyextinct; the last lifeService and those National Wildlife confirmedsighting having been in 1972 Refugepersonnel who provided infor- (Iversen1976). Possibly, the long-billed mation from their Quarterly Reports. curlewcan hold its own, but only if mea- I am indebtedto MaryTremaine for surestaken to preserve it are soon forth- sharing her knowledge oflong-billed cur- coming. lewswith me, and forsuggesting tech- Althoughthe curlewis a protectedniques for making field observations and speciesthroughout North America, the photographsofthe birds. The pen and processof habitat destruction continues ink illustrationswere drawn by Dick at an everincreasing rate causing their r1tzner. numbersto decline. In bothsoutheastern Washingtonand northeastern Oregon, an TAXONOMYOF THE estimated30,000 acres per year of curlew LONG-BILLED CURLEW habitatare lost to cultivation (J.E. Kurtz 1976,Refuge Manager, Umatilla National The long-billedcurlew (family Scolo- WildlifeRefuge Umatilla, Oregon 97882, pacidae,order Charadriiformes) is closely pers.comm.). In view of that,public relatedto the snipe sandpipers, and yel- landssuch as NationalWildlife Refuges lowlegs. In theearly 1900s, considerable andthe Department ofEnergy