Eskimo Curlew

The Eskimo Curlew was a medium-sized shorebird. It was approximately 12 inches in length with dark, rich cinnamon colored plumage with solid colored (rather than barred like the Whimbrel) primary feathers. The Adults had long dark grayish colored legs and a long bill that curved slightly downward.

Although the Eskimo Curlew was called a shorebird, it inhabited the grasslands and tundra. They fed on the insect eggs found in the prairie grasslands throughout North America in the spring and fattened up on fruits and berries in preparation for their southward trek. They nested in the Alaska and Canadian Arctic and migrated to South America in the winter. The fall migration usually followed the East Coast of North America and their northward trek cut through the central states and providences.

The evidence is overwhelming. Hunting and then marketing the meat started the Eskimo Curlew's slide into extinction. There were no restrictions or limits on the number of birds a hunter could bag. With the Passenger Pigeon gone, hunters took every bird that had the misfortune of crossing their path. Between 1870 and 1890 the Eskimo Curlew's numbers dropped drasticly and irrevocably.