Eskimo Curlew

The Eskimo curlew was a New World bird. Members of this species bred on the tundra of western arctic Canada and Alaska. Eskimo curlews migrated to the pampas of Argentina in the late summer and returned in February. They used to be very rare vagrants to western Europe, but there have been no recent records. In Britain, there are four records, all from the nineteenth century. A comparison of dates and migratory patterns has led some to conjecture that Eskimo curlews and American golden plover are the shorebirds that attracted the attention of Christopher Columbus to nearby land after 65 days at sea and out of sight of land on his first voyage. In the 1800s, millions of Eskimo curlews followed migration routes from the present Yukon and Northwest Territories, flying east along the northern shore of Canada, then south over the Atlantic Ocean to South America in the winter. When returning to North America, they would fly north through the Great Plains.

At one time, the Eskimo curlew may have been one of the most numerous shorebirds in North America, with a population in the millions. As many as 2 million birds per year were killed near the end of the nineteenth century. The last confirmed sightings were in 1962 on Galveston Island, Texas (photographed) and on Barbados in 1963 (specimen). There was a reliable report of 23 birds in Texas in 1981, and a few dozen additional unconfirmed reports from the Northwest Territories, Texas, Ontario, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Alaska, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Argentina, Guatemala, Labrador, New Jersey, and North Carolina between 1964 and 2006. No confirmed record of this species has been reported in South America since 1939. It has been suggested that the species not be treated as extinct until all possible remaining habitats have been surveyed and incidental sightings have ceased, and an assessment of critically endangered (possibly extinct) be adopted in the meantime. Full details on all sightings up to 1986 are included in the online edition of Eskimo Curlew: A Vanishing Species? This species is fully protected in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Hunting has been outlawed since around 1916.