NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Slender-billed Curlew
Numenius tenuirostris Vieillot, 1817
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris) is an extinct species of curlew formerly native to Eurasia and North Africa. Isotope analysis suggests the majority of the former population bred in the Kazakh Steppe despite a record from the Siberian swamps, and was migratory, wintering in shallow freshwater habitats around the Mediterranean. This species has occurred as a vagrant in western Europe, the Canary Islands, the Azores, Oman, Canada, and Japan.
In November 2024, the species was declared globally extinct, with the last irrefutable sighting of the slender-billed curlew identified from Morocco in February 1995.
Wikipedia contributors, Slender-billed curlew; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:50:35.241430+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Numenius tenuirostris Vieillot, 1817
- Name authority
- Vieillot, 1817
- Common name
- Slender-billed Curlew
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Scolopacidae
- Genus
- Numenius
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyScolopacidae Rafinesque, 1815
- genusNumenius Brisson, 1760
- speciesNumenius tenuirostris Vieillot, 1817
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Numenius. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern CurlewNumenius madagascariensis (Linnaeus, 1766) | ScolopacidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Little CurlewNumenius minutus Gould, 1841 | ScolopacidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Eurasian WhimbrelNumenius phaeopus (Linnaeus, 1758) | ScolopacidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Long-billed CurlewNumenius americanus Bechstein, 1812 | ScolopacidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Eurasian CurlewNumenius arquata (Linnaeus, 1758) | ScolopacidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Eskimo CurlewNumenius borealis (J. R. Forster, 1772) | ScolopacidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Bristle-thighed CurlewNumenius tahitiensis (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) | ScolopacidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Europe & Northern Asia (excluding China)
North America
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=176607 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:483T8. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.