Sandpipers, Phalaropes

Whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus

Family Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Phalaropes)

Size: 17"

Season: Spring and fall migrant

Habitat: Coastal flats, inland marshes

Also known as the Hudsonian curlew, the whimbrel is a large shorebird with a very long, decurved bill. It is overall gray brown, and paler beneath with barring. The head has a dark eye stripe and cap, with a pale central crown-stripe, and the legs are dark gray. The plumages in all seasons are similar. The whimbrel forages singly or in small groups, probing or picking with its long, sensitive bill, searching for invertebrates and coaxing fiddler crabs from their burrows. Their call is a soft ker-loo. The adult is illustrated.