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Eurasian Stone-curlews are medium-sized, long-legged waders with an highly cryptic plumage. The cap, neck, chest and the entire back are creamy to light brownish-grey, with dark brownish-grey streaking. The streaks are bolder on the body than on the head. The wings have wide creamy-greyish panels, with a white-black-white wing bar on top. Apart from a wide darker band through the eyes, the sides of the head and the chin are creamy, bordered by a darker, streaked moustachial stripe. The belly and vent are also creamy, while the undertail coverts are rufous. The irises are dark-yellow. The strong, straight bill is black, with a yellow base. The legs and feet are yellowish-grey. Juvenile birds have a shorter bill, less prominent wing bars, less streaking, an in general lower colour contrast and no rufous undertail coverts.

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 Eurasian Stone-curlew is available HERE .

There are 5 extant races of Eurasian Stone-curlews, which are a partly migratory species. They are sedentary only around the southern and western Mediterranean Sea and along the North-west African coast. In sub-Saharan Africa and in parts of Arabia they are winter visitors, while in temperate parts of Europe and in Asia Minor they are breeding migrants. Their stronghold is in south-western to southern and central Asia, in a region from South of the Caucasus mountain range and around the Caspian Sea to roughly the western border of China and from northern Iraq (the Euphrates/Tigris river system) to the border of Pakistan with India.

In Europe Eurasian Stone-curlews are sedentary in the southern 2/3 of Iberia. Elsewhere in Europe, including the Mediterranean islands where they occur, they are found only as breeding migrants from the South or on their migration. Apart from a large fraction of France, their breeding range encompasses only a few sites in southern England, a few in Germany, Italy and the eastern Adriatic coastline. Otherwise, they have strongholds along the Danube River, downstream from the Czech Republic, parts of Greece and the western and northern Black Sea coastline, out to the western Caspian Sea.

Eurasian Stone-curlews are one of the species of waders specializing in life in dry, open habitats, with either sandy or rocky soil, where they also nest in a scrape.

Race "oedicnemus"

Race "saharae"