Distribution and Habitat
The Eskimo Curlew is a New World bird. Members of this species bred on the tundra of western arctic Canada and Alaska.
Eskimo Curlews migrated to the pampas of Argentina in the late summer and returned in February. They were formerly very rare vagrants to western Europe, but there have been no recent records. In Britain, there are four records, all from the 19th Century.
A comparison of dates and migratory patterns has led some to conjecture that Eskimo Curlews and American Golden-Plover are the shorebirds that attracted the attention of Christopher Columbus to nearby land after 65 days at sea and out of sight of land on his first voyage. In the 1800s millions of Eskimo Curlews followed migration routes from the present Yukon and Northwest Territories, flying east along the northern shore of Canada, then south over the Atlantic Ocean to South America in the winter. When returning to North America, they would fly north through the Great Plains.
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