Whimbrel

Voice

Unmistakable and entirely its own: a fast, even series of five to seven short whistles on one pitch, pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu, rippling and cheerful, given in flight by day and by night. In the Netherlands this is the sound of the last week of April. On the breeding grounds the male sings in a gliding display flight with a long bubbling trill, like a Curlew's but faster and higher. Disturbed birds on the ground give a short, sharp kwi-kwi.

Identification

Like a Curlew, but smaller, darker and with a bill that does not curve evenly but kinks noticeably two-thirds of the way along; it is about one and a half times the head length, against two to three times in Curlew. The crown is the clincher: two broad dark lateral stripes with a pale central stripe between them, plus a dark eye-stripe and a pale supercilium. The upperparts are colder brown and more contrastingly scaled than in Curlew. In flight the European race shows a pointed white wedge up the back, a finely barred underwing and markedly faster, stiffer wingbeats. Autumn juveniles are more warmly fringed, but the head pattern is just as obvious.

Confusion species

Curlew is the only real confusion species: longer, evenly decurved bill, a plain unstriped crown, warmer brown upperparts and slower, heavier wingbeats, and it calls entirely differently. Bar-tailed Godwit has a straight to slightly upturned bill and short dark legs. The American race hudsonicus, a rare vagrant, lacks the white back wedge and shows a dark rump: always check that on a Whimbrel that looks surprisingly dark in flight.

Habitat

On migration surprisingly catholic: saltmarsh and mudflats, but equally grassland polders, stubble fields, dune slacks and heath. On the flats it takes mostly crabs and shrimps; inland, leatherjackets, worms, beetles and, in autumn, berries. It roosts in dense flocks on sandbanks and saltmarsh. It breeds on open bog, tundra, moorland and birch tundra, and in Iceland also on grazed farmland.

Range and movements

Breeds in Iceland, Scotland, Fennoscandia and across arctic Russia and winters along the coasts of West Africa. The Netherlands is mainly a filling station: the spring passage in late April and early May is spectacular, with roosts of thousands on the Wadden islands and along the Frisian coast, while autumn passage runs more broadly from July to September. In Spain it passes along both coasts, in the largest numbers on the Atlantic side, and small numbers winter in the Bay of Cádiz and in Huelva.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• Migration direction
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

The last week of April is the moment. Go in late afternoon to a polder or saltmarsh on Texel, Terschelling or Vlieland and wait for the flocks to come in off the land to roost; they arrive low and noisy, often in strings of tens. Away from the coast you can listen for nocturnal migration in that same week from an open window or the garden: that series of whistles over a village is unmistakable. In autumn July and August are quieter, but they give more time to compare birds on the ground with Curlews.

Conservation status

Least Concern; the world population is large and the Icelandic breeders, which dominate the European passage, are doing well. In Fennoscandia numbers are falling through drainage and afforestation of peatlands and the rank overgrowth of moorland, and in Scotland the species has retreated to a handful of sites in Shetland and Orkney. For migrants the quality of the saltmarshes and grasslands along the route is decisive, and disturbance at island roosts is where management can achieve most.