Gould commented 'How strange it is...that a bird should frequent such totally different localities at opposite seasons of the year!' In summer the Curlew was 'an inland bird, dwelling on the moorland, among bogs, on the sides of hills,- and even on the crowns of mountains - flowering rushes and blooming heather being the places...in which the downy young first see the light.' In contrast, during winter the Curlew inhabited 'the wet, oozy, mudflats of the arms of the sea, the equally dirty sides of tidal rivers, and the flat shores of the ocean...'

The adult is depicted with two young.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds northern Eurasia from British Isles and Scandinavia east to Mongolia, Manchuria, and southwest Siberia. Winters from south Europe, south Asia, and Japan south to south Africa and Indonesia. Breeds throughout much of Britain except for most of southeast England and is sporadic in southwest England and northwest Scotland