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Abstract:
In March 2006, Jurgen Beckers, Bert de Bruin, Sybrand de Bruin, Walberto Naranjo Maury, Nico Slabbekoorn, Lynn Temple, Patrick Temple and Jan Harm Wiers made a birding trip to Colombia. During the three weeks, we visited the Santa Marta region, Barranquilla, Riohacha, el Paujil in the Magdalena valley, Ibaque in the Andes and Bogotá.
On 16 March, we were visiting the area just west of Riohacha on the Caribbean coast. It is the driest part of Colombia but holds some wetlands, which were filled with herons, waders and terns. Although our main target species for that day was Chestnut Piculet [Picumnus cinnamomeus], which we had to find in the dry parts, we first checked the flocks of shorebirds. We quickly found a curlew Numenius, which BdB and SdB immediately identified as Long-billed Curlew [N americanus], a species we had not expected. We could observe the bird for at least one hour and obtained some photographs as well as video recordings. The same evening, back at the hotel, we checked the official checklist of Colombia on the Avibase website (www.bsc-eoc.org/avibase/avibase.jsp) and, to our astonishment, we could not find Long-billed Curlew. In other words, we managed to find a new species for Colombia. On the same mudflat, we also observed American Herring Gull [Larus smithsonianus], Marbled Godwit [Limosa fedoa] and Snowy Plover [Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus], all rare vagrants to Colombia (cf Hilty & Brown 1986; www.bsc-eoc.org/avibase/avibase.jsp).
The identification of Long-billed Curlew is straightforward; it is a large curlew with a very long decurved bill. The plumage is distinctively cinnamon-coloured, especially in breeding plumage. Other large curlews, such as Eurasian Curlew N arquata and Far-Eastern Curlew N madagascariensis, lack this cinnamon colour and, besides, are extremely unlikely vagrants to the Caribbean coast of South America (Hayman et al 1986). The long bill and cinnamon plumage are easily seen on the photographs and video recordings. One could only argue about age, sex or subspecies, but these issues seem to be quite difficult and probably best proven in the hand (Hayman et al 1986, Rosair & Cottridge 1995). The bird photographed at Riohacha was very long billed, suggesting a female and probably ruling out an immature bird, although at this time of the year this may be an unsafe ageing character.
Long-billed Curlew is a breeding species in prairie habitats in North America. Two subspecies are recognized: the northerly breeding N a parvus and the more southerly N a americanus. Differences are very slight and probably clinal and only, as the name parvus (small) suggests, refer to size (Hayman et al 1986, Paulson 1993). It is a short-distance migrant, wintering mainly on the coasts of California, Louisiana and Texas, USA, and of Central America, sometimes south to Honduras. Vagrants have been reported from the West Indies, Panama and Venezuela (Hayman et al 1986, Rosair & Cottridge 1995).
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