Eurasian Whimbrel

Numenius phaeopus variegatus ‡

Foreshore, Cairns, FNE Qld IMG_6054 20200430 - note strongly down-curved bill, dark eye-stripe, dark-brown crown w.
pale central stripe, fine eye-ring.

Notes: Fairly large brown wader w. strongly decurved bill, dark eye-stripe & fine eye-ring, dark-
brown crown w. pale central stripe. In flight, pale rump, no toe trailing. Cf smaller, shorter-billed
Little Curlew, larger, dark-rumped, blank-faced Far Eastern Curlew & vagrant Hudsonian Whimbrel.
Call is a series of short, shrill whistles. Migrant after breeding on low Arctic Siberian tundra;
widespread along Aust. coast. Feeds by sight on intertidal invertebrates.

Range from Morcombe & Stewart©(modified)