Eurasian Whimbrel

Numenius phaeopus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Eurasian Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus is a curlew in the sandpiper family, breeding patchily across the subarctic Palearctic from north-east Greenland and northern Scotland through subarctic Russia to the Chukotskiy Peninsula. Outside the breeding season it is widespread on temperate to tropical coasts, reaching the British Isles, Madeira, Cape Verde, the western Mediterranean, Africa, the Indian Ocean and its gulfs, bays and islands, Australasia, New Zealand, Melanesia, the Ryukyu Islands and Micronesia, with rare records farther east in Polynesia. It is a migratory coastal bird, and in Europe and Asia it shows a white rump in flight.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Scolopacidae — Sandpipers, Snipes

Breeding range

Palearctic: patchily in subarctic tundra of Palearctic: ne Greenland and n Scotland through subarctic Russia to Chukotskiy Pen. (ne Russia)

Nonbreeding range

widespread on temperate to tropical Palearctic coasts: s British Isles, Madeira to Cape Verde (Macaronesia, nw of n Africa), w Mediterranean, Africa, Indian Ocean and associated gulfs, bays and islands, Australasia to North and n South is. (New Zealand) and Melanesia, n to Ryukyu Is. (=Nansei Shoto, s Japan) and e to Micronesia; rare farther e in Polynesia