Slender-billed Curlew
CR

Slender-billed Curlew

Numenius tenuirostris

UnknownCREUCREU

Photo: Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Overview

A detailed profile for this species is sourced from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as assessments become available.

The Slender-billed Curlew faces extreme risk of extinction due to severe habitat loss across its breeding and wintering grounds, with wetland drainage and agricultural conversion eliminating critical stopover sites along migration routes. The species has experienced a catastrophic population decline, with no confirmed sightings in recent years despite extensive searches, suggesting the population may have collapsed to near-extinction levels.

Threat summary

Habitat

Breeds in wet meadows, marshes, and boggy areas in the taiga and forest-steppe zones of western Siberia. Winters in coastal mudflats, saltmarshes, lagoons, and shallow wetlands around the Mediterranean basin and potentially North Africa.

MARINE· majorTERRESTRIAL· major

Other threatened species in Scolopacidae

Eurasian CurlewVU

Eurasian Curlew

Numenius arquata

Unknown
redshank, common redshankVU

redshank, common redshank

Tringa totanus

Unknown
Imperial SnipeVU

Imperial Snipe

Gallinago imperialis

Unknown
EN

Turnstone

Arenaria interpres

Unknown

Frequently asked questions

Why is Slender-billed Curlew classified as Critically Endangered?
Slender-billed Curlew is classified as Critically Endangered — facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild — because population sizes are very small, declining sharply, or restricted to a tiny range. The Slender-billed Curlew faces extreme risk of extinction due to severe habitat loss across its breeding and wintering grounds, with wetland drainage and agricultural conversion eliminating critical stopover sites along migration routes. The species has experienced a catastrophic population decline, with no confirmed sightings in recent years despite extensive searches, suggesting the population may have collapsed to near-extinction levels.
Where does Slender-billed Curlew live?
Slender-billed Curlew occurs in across multiple regions. Country-level distribution data is sourced from the IUCN Red List and cross-referenced with GBIF occurrences.
What are the main threats to Slender-billed Curlew?
The main threats to Slender-billed Curlew are ai-1, ai-2, ai-3, and ai-4. The full IUCN-classified threat record for this species is detailed on the species page.

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