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Portrait of Stone-curlew

Nature · Birds

Stone-curlew

Summer visitor · 40–44 cm

Burhinus oedicnemus — Burhinidae (thick-knees)

A cryptic, largely nocturnal wader of bare stony ground, with an enormous staring yellow eye and a wailing call that carries across the downs at dusk. It is not a curlew at all but a thick-knee, and in Britain it survives almost entirely on the chalk of Wessex and the sandy Brecks of East Anglia, where nests are found and protected by conservation staff working with farmers.

How to spot them

  • ▸Huge, staring yellow eye, adapted for feeding at night
  • ▸Sandy-brown streaked plumage, a white wingbar and long yellow legs with a thick 'knee'
  • ▸Eerie wailing, rising 'coor-leee' at dusk, like a curlew but wilder and more nocturnal
  • ▸Bare, stony, sparsely vegetated ground: chalk downland, spring-sown fields, Breckland heath
  • ▸Runs in a crouch and freezes flat rather than flying; big head and short stout bill

How to know it

An enormous staring yellow eye for feeding at night, above long yellow legs with a swollen joint

Stone-curlew — a thick-knee, not a curlew.

A wild wailing 'coor-leee' rising across bare chalk downland at dusk

The stone-curlew's call, which gave it a name it does not deserve.

Not a curlew but a member of the thick-knees; its species name means 'swollen shin'

Stone-curlew — Burhinus oedicnemus.

Britain's population survives on Salisbury Plain and the Breckland of Norfolk and Suffolk, with nests found and marked before cultivation

Stone-curlew — about 365 pairs, with plots created for it under agri-environment schemes.

Freezes flat on stony ground rather than flying, relying on streaked plumage that matches flint and chalk

Stone-curlew — its camouflage is why it is so seldom seen.

Dialect names include 'wailing heath chicken' and 'Norfolk plover'

Stone-curlew — a Breckland speciality.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Scientific name Burhinus oedicnemus; oedicnemus means 'swollen shin', hence the family name 'thick-knees'
  • •It is not a curlew: it belongs to the family Burhinidae, and the name comes only from the wailing call
  • •BTO BirdFacts gives about 365 pairs in the UK (2013–17 estimate); it peaked at 473 pairs in 2012 before a cold, wet spring in 2013
  • •Amber-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021) and on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
  • •The two British strongholds are Wessex, chiefly Salisbury Plain, and the Brecks of Norfolk and Suffolk
  • •The huge yellow eye is an adaptation to feeding at night on beetles, worms and even mice
  • •Nests are shallow scrapes on bare ground, so conservation staff locate and mark them so farmers can cultivate around them
  • •The UK range contracted by around 42% between the 1968–72 and 2008–11 breeding atlases
  • •Old Breckland names include 'Norfolk plover' and 'wailing heath chicken'

Drill it — 8 cards

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