CreatureData

Little curlew

Numenius minutus Gould, 1841

LCLeast Concernbirds

The little curlew (Numenius minutus) is a species in the family Scolopacidae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 161.5 g to 182 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Little curlew (Numenius minutus)
Photo: Wayne Cheng · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the little curlew

Weight
161.5 g – 182 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
68 cm – 71 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
grasslandsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
22.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
4src for Young per litter or clutch
Litters or clutches a year
1src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Migratorysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the little curlew?

LITTLE CURLEW · WINGSPAN 71 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 71 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the little curlew is about 42% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the little curlew live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The little curlew is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Why a country list is not a range map

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the little curlew?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The little curlew (Numenius minutus) is a wader in the large bird family Scolopacidae. It is a very small curlew, which breeds in the far north of Siberia. It is closely related to the North American Eskimo curlew.

From the Wikipedia article “Little curlew” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Little_curlew&oldid=1314789266), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the little curlew endangered?

The little curlew is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the little curlew classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderCharadriiformes
  5. familyScolopacidae
  6. genusNumenius
  7. SpeciesNumenius minutus Gould, 1841

Synonyms Numenius minor

Other names and names in other languages (50)
  • Little whimbrelEnglish
  • Little whimbrelEnglish
  • كروان صغيرArabic
  • Сибирски свирецBulgarian
  • Kefeleg korrBreton
  • polit menutCatalan
  • koliha nejmenšíCzech
  • coegylfinir bachWelsh
  • Coegylfinirod BachWelsh
  • DværgspoveDanish
  • ZwergbrachvogelGerman
  • nana kurloEsperanto
  • Pigmea kurloEsperanto
  • Zarapito chicoSpanish
  • kääbuskoovitajaEstonian
  • taigakuoviFinnish
  • Taigakuovi KääpiökuoviFinnish
  • Courlis nainFrench
  • Crotach beagIrish
  • Crottag houree vegManx
  • חרמשון גמדיHebrew
  • mali pozviždačCroatian
  • törpepólingHungarian
  • Gajahan kecilIndonesian
  • DvergspóiIcelandic
  • Chiurlo nanoItalian
  • Chiurlo minoreItalian
  • コシャクシギJapanese
  • Кіші шалшықшыKazakh
  • 쇠부리도요Korean
  • mažoji kuolingaLithuanian
  • mazā kuitalaLatvian
  • kleine regenwulpDutch
  • dvergspoveNorwegian
  • kulik krótkodziobyPolish
  • maçarico-pequenoPortuguese
  • кроншнеп-малюткаRussian
  • DeaggaguškkástatNorthern Sami
  • hvizdák najmenšíSlovak
  • jakutski škurhSlovenian
  • Sibirska carska šljukaSerbian
  • dvärgspovSwedish
  • นกอีก๋อยจิ๋วThai
  • Küçük KervançulluğuTurkish
  • küçük sürmeli kervan çulluğuTurkish
  • küçük yağmur kervan çulluğuTurkish
  • Кульон малийUkrainian
  • кульон-крихіткаUkrainian
  • 小杓鷸Chinese
  • 小杓鹬Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the little curlew

Other species in the same genus Numenius.

CR, Critically Endangered
Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis)

Eskimo curlew

Numenius borealis

Scolopacidae

CompareLittle curlew vs Eurasian curlewLittle curlew vs Eurasian whimbrelLittle curlew vs Slender-billed curlewLittle curlew vs Eskimo curlew

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the little curlew?

An adult little curlew weighs 161.5 g – 182 g and has a wingspan of 68 cm – 71 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the little curlew live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the little curlew for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the little curlew endangered?

The little curlew is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the little curlew?

The little curlew (Numenius minutus) belongs to the family Scolopacidae in the order Charadriiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Little curlew (Numenius minutus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/little-curlew

MLA

“Little curlew (Numenius minutus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/little-curlew.

BibTeX
@misc{little_curlew_2026,
  title = {Little curlew (Numenius minutus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/little-curlew},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}