Long-billed
Curlew,
Numenius americanus
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![]() The largest Western Hemisphere shorebird, and one of the most photogenic, with its extra-long curved bill and bright cinnamon plumage. |
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![]() With a mole crab, a favorite prey. |
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![]() A Long-billed Curlew in flight with its near relative, the Marbled Godwit. Both have the cinnamon plumage and bicolored pink and black bill, but the curlew is larger and its bill is proportionately longer and down-curved while the godwit's is slightly up-curved. Marbled Godwits are much more common than Long-billed Curlews around Moss Landing on Monterey Bay coast, where most of my pictures of both species were taken; 1500-2500 godwits and only 40-60 curlews are the estimated winter populations. |