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Little Curlews are the smallest curlews. They have a brownish-grey, lightly streaked head, neck and chest, with two parallel dark-brown stripes running the length of the cap. The belly and vent are creamy, while the wings are boldly scalloped light and dark grey-brown. The uppertail is barred. When in eclipse, the plumage shows less rufous-brown tints than during the breeding season. The plumage is cryptic, i.e. camouflaged, against the background of a mudflat. The dark-grey bill is quite long and curved downwards, with a lighter, pinkish base of the lower mandible.

Twitcher's tip

Compared to other members of the Numenius family, they are the by far smallest species and have the shortest bill (in absolute terms, but also compared to the size of the head).

The correct identification of waders ("shorebirds"), e.g. of the Calidris, Tringa, Actitis and related families or of the Charadrius, Pluvialis and related genera in the field can be quite tricky. We have therefore made an attempt to give some advice HERE.

Twitcher's tip

Note that the name "Curlew" is often used incorrectly in everyday Australian English language use to stand for "Stone-curlew". Their correct names are "Bush Stone-curlew" and "Beach Stone-curlew", respectively.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Little Curlew is available HERE .

Little Curlews are an highly migratory species. Their breeding grounds are located in the far North of Siberia. Some migrate to spend the northern winters in parts of South-east Asia, but the majority fly even farther, to Australia. (The absence of reports from Siberia is most likely due to the absence of reporting birdwatchers, rather than birds.)

Little Curlews are migrants to Australia from the North. They are found regularly only in the far North of the continent, from the Kimberley in WA through the Top End of the NT to the region South of the Gulf of Carpentaria, i.e. the catchments of the Leichhardt River and the Gilbert River, including Mt. Isa, QLD. Across the rest of the continent, they are found only occasionaly. They do not venture into the great sandy deserts of eastern WA, the south-western NT and the western part of SA.

Outside the breeding season Little Curlews are mostly found in open grassland (including urban environments such as lawns and sports grounds) and mudflats, e.g. in ephemeral wetlands.

We have spotted a single Little Curlew at Goran Lake, an ephemeral lake about 30 km South of Gunnedah, NSW, in late October 2011, when the lake had been full of water for about half a year. No Little Curlew had been spotted at this location during several earlier visits and none have been seen there again until the lake eventually dried up.

B. Hensen reports spotting a Little Curlew near Fogg Dam CR, Top End, NT, in March 2013.

B. Hensen also found two Little Curlews near Newell Beach, QLD, in November 2018.

M. Eaton spotted 5 Little Curlews at Atkinson Dam, near Lowood, QLD, in October 2019.

In February 2023, we found a flock of at least 50 Little Curlews in an ephemeral wetland ca. 30 km S of Mungindi, NSW. At the same location up to 90 Little Curlews had been counted by other observers at the time.

J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours reports spotting a Little Curlew at Edmonton, Cairns, QLD, in November 2020.