All species › Waders, gulls and terns › Thick-knees and stone-curlews › Eurasian Thick-Knee
Eurasian Thick-Knee | Burhinus oedicnemus
Griel | Alcaraván común | Alcaravão
The Eurasian Thick-knee is a thick-knee of Europe, North Africa and south-west Asia that has been recorded in the guide area only as a very rare vagrant. It is a nocturnal bird of dry, open plains that stands quietly and camouflaged on the ground by day.
Voice
On the breeding grounds, mainly at night, loud, whistling, curlew-like calls, coo-lee, often in series. Vagrants are usually silent.
Recording: Sébastien Reeber — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
40–44 cm, with a round head, large yellow eyes, a short yellow bill with a black tip and long yellow legs. The plumage is sandy brown and densely streaked dark. On the closed wing a white bar between two dark bars stands out. The head has a short white supercilium and cheek stripe. In flight it shows black flight feathers with white patches and a white wing bar. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Peruvian Thick-knee Hesperoburhinus superciliaris has a greyer, less streaked breast, a prominent white supercilium bordered black above and lacks the white bar on the closed wing. Double-striped Thick-knee Hesperoburhinus bistriatus is larger, with a long, broad white supercilium below a black stripe, and also lacks an obvious wing bar.
Habitat
In its native range dry, open terrain: steppe, heath, sandy plains, fields and bare pastures. At night it feeds on insects, worms, snails and small vertebrates. A vagrant is to be expected in similar open, dry land or in pastures.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Recorded in the guide area only as a very rare vagrant; there is no regular place or time of occurrence. Breeds in Europe, North Africa and south-west Asia; northern birds winter in North Africa and the Sahel. Absent from the Galápagos.
How and when to look
A vagrant may turn up in open, dry terrain or pastureland, more likely in the north and on the coast than in the interior. Note the white wing bar and the yellow bill base to separate it from the native thick-knees.
Conservation status
Least Concern. In parts of Europe numbers have declined through agricultural intensification, but the range is large.
Scientific name
Burhinus oedicnemus | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Charadrius Oedicnemus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Burhinus was introduced in 1811 by Illiger. The genus name comes from Greek bous, 'ox', and rhis, 'nose' or 'bill', after the stout bill. The species name comes from Greek oidos, 'swelling', and knēmē, 'shin', after the thick 'knees' (actually ankle joints). The specimen the first description was based on came from England.