Like Christy Moore’s song about the two island swans, curlews also mate for life. However, with just 95 breeding pairs left in Ireland, a lot of work needs to be done to reinvigorate the curlew population on our shores.
Curlew numbers have decreased by over 95% here in Ireland, by over 80% in Wales, and by around 60% across England and Scotland since the 1980s.
The curlew is a migratory bird and is a winter visitor to wetlands throughout Ireland, as well as breeding in small numbers in floodplains and boglands.
The curlew has a distinctive call and makes a “cur..lee, cur..lee” whistle, or sometimes “cew, cew, cew” noise, now heard less and less across Ireland.
Adult curlews typically live until they’re about 11 years old, with the oldest recorded curlew being 32 years old.
According to curlew activist Flo Blackbourn from the UK, adult survival is quite high. She told a recent Teagasc’s Signpost webinar that the real challenge in terms of curlew conservation is getting the chicks past the fledgling stage.
A curlew pair need to fledge about one chick per year, every second year, to maintain a sustainable population, according to Blackbourn. Unfortunately, at the moment the average around Europe is around half of this.
Predation
“They have threats from many sources - eggs and chicks can be predated by birds, like crows, and mammals, like foxes.
Another issue, Blackbourn said, is trampling from sheep and cows and, in some cases, sheep can even eat the eggs.
Changing landscapes are impacting curlew habitats also, according to Blackbourn.
“Curlews are greatly reliant on the type of landscapes which are prone to human activities, whether that be development or farming so they are very much coming into close contact with us. We’ve had years of wetland drainage,” she explained.
“The UK has lost 90% of its wetlands in the last 100 years and Ireland’s lost about 260,000ha of wetlands between 1990 and 2018 so we’re losing a lot of our wetlands.
“The use of pesticides along with wetland draining is really affecting insect abundance which is very important for chicks and adults,” she added.
“When the ground is drier, the invertebrates travel down further in the soil and it’s harder for them to feed themselves.”
The Eurasian curlew feeds on invertebrates and crustaceans - photographed on Bull Island's coastal mudflats.
With the silage season now beginning a lot earlier and farmers achieving more cuts during the growing season, the curlews’ ability to rear their young in the ground nests is being negatively affected.
“This [silage cutting] can destroy nests and it can destroy habitats right from the pre-laying phase all the way to the fledgling curlews.
“They need about three months to be able to rear their chicks safely without any disturbance,” Blackbourn said.
Curlews also can’t nest near forests because they harbour predators of the bird. As result, they won’t nest within half a kilometre of a forest as a method of self-protection.
The decline in numbers
There has been an almost 50% decline in curlew numbers in the UK between 1995 and 2021 and are now considered one of the greatest conservation concerns.
There are currently 58,500 pairs of curlew breeding in the UK, which makes up 25% of the global curlew population.
“We’re only fledging half of what we need to fledge and to have a stable population in the UK we’d need to be fledging 10,000 more chicks every single year,” she said. Unfortunately, in Ireland the situation is even worse than it is in the UK, according to Blackbourn.
Curlews are on the red list in Ireland and it is possible that they will be extinct as a breeding bird in the next few decades. In the 1980, there were around 3,500 breeding breeding pairs in Ireland - now there are only 95.
What can farmers do?
Blackbourn says that farmers and landowners can play a huge part in conservation - such as giving permission for their land to be used for monitoring or getting involved in conservation projects themselves.
The annual report from the Curlew Conservation Programme, a partnership between the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the Department of Agriculture which ended in 2023, last recorded 42 chicks reaching fledging stage in the summer of 2023.
That is up from 19 in 2022.
These birds depend on farmers
Farmers need to be particularly conscious of the curlew’s nesting habits between the middle of March until the end of June – they usually start to lay eggs around 21 April.
Wildlife management specialist Owen Murphy is heading up the Breeding Waders EIP project, which aims to protect wader birds such as the curlew, with the help of farmers.
“What we’re asking farmers to do is not rocket science.
If you ask a farmer themselves how to protect a nest on the ground, they will generally know the answers - not rolling during the breeding season and not knocking meadow during the breeding season.
It’s really making people aware of where these wader birds are and can be,” he said.
The project will train and recruit up to 650 farmers, who farm land in breeding wader hotspots.
Payment
The average payment per annum, according to Murphy, will be between €4,000 and €6,000 per farmer. Some of the actions include cutting back on ivermectin use, rush mulching, clearing scrub, maintenance of hedgerows, removal of predator perches such as a high tree, reduced stocking rates and delayed rolling and mowing dates.
Mink trapping will also be another part of the project and farmers who are near rivers or streams will receive training on how to operate mink traps.
“Stocking density is a big one, if birds are on eggs on the ground – the chances of that nest getting trampled by cattle increases substantially once you go over 1LU/ha. So from 15 March until the end of the breeding season, we ask for a reduced stocking rate.
“Up until the 1950s and 1960s these breeding wader birds and farmers were friends. Farmers, as such, don’t need these birds but they need farmers. These birds depend on farmers,” he said.
The Breeding Waders EIP project will run for five years and is currently in the process of selecting farmers to take part.
The Irish curlew, a large wading bird, is known for its long, curved bill and distinctive call.There are 95 breeding pairs in Ireland.There are eight species of curlew around the world.The oldest known curlew was was approximately 32 years old.The average life span is 11 years.58,500 pairs of curlew breed in the UK, >25% of global population.49% decline in breeding curlews in England between 1995 and 2021.The curlew is a winter visitor to wetlands throughout Ireland.
Like Christy Moore’s song about the two island swans, curlews also mate for life. However, with just 95 breeding pairs left in Ireland, a lot of work needs to be done to reinvigorate the curlew population on our shores.
Curlew numbers have decreased by over 95% here in Ireland, by over 80% in Wales, and by around 60% across England and Scotland since the 1980s.
The curlew is a migratory bird and is a winter visitor to wetlands throughout Ireland, as well as breeding in small numbers in floodplains and boglands.
The curlew has a distinctive call and makes a “cur..lee, cur..lee” whistle, or sometimes “cew, cew, cew” noise, now heard less and less across Ireland.
Adult curlews typically live until they’re about 11 years old, with the oldest recorded curlew being 32 years old.
According to curlew activist Flo Blackbourn from the UK, adult survival is quite high. She told a recent Teagasc’s Signpost webinar that the real challenge in terms of curlew conservation is getting the chicks past the fledgling stage.
A curlew pair need to fledge about one chick per year, every second year, to maintain a sustainable population, according to Blackbourn. Unfortunately, at the moment the average around Europe is around half of this.
Predation
“They have threats from many sources - eggs and chicks can be predated by birds, like crows, and mammals, like foxes.
Another issue, Blackbourn said, is trampling from sheep and cows and, in some cases, sheep can even eat the eggs.
Changing landscapes are impacting curlew habitats also, according to Blackbourn.
“Curlews are greatly reliant on the type of landscapes which are prone to human activities, whether that be development or farming so they are very much coming into close contact with us. We’ve had years of wetland drainage,” she explained.
“The UK has lost 90% of its wetlands in the last 100 years and Ireland’s lost about 260,000ha of wetlands between 1990 and 2018 so we’re losing a lot of our wetlands.
“The use of pesticides along with wetland draining is really affecting insect abundance which is very important for chicks and adults,” she added.
“When the ground is drier, the invertebrates travel down further in the soil and it’s harder for them to feed themselves.”
The Eurasian curlew feeds on invertebrates and crustaceans - photographed on Bull Island's coastal mudflats.
With the silage season now beginning a lot earlier and farmers achieving more cuts during the growing season, the curlews’ ability to rear their young in the ground nests is being negatively affected.
“This [silage cutting] can destroy nests and it can destroy habitats right from the pre-laying phase all the way to the fledgling curlews.
“They need about three months to be able to rear their chicks safely without any disturbance,” Blackbourn said.
Curlews also can’t nest near forests because they harbour predators of the bird. As result, they won’t nest within half a kilometre of a forest as a method of self-protection.
The decline in numbers
There has been an almost 50% decline in curlew numbers in the UK between 1995 and 2021 and are now considered one of the greatest conservation concerns.
There are currently 58,500 pairs of curlew breeding in the UK, which makes up 25% of the global curlew population.
“We’re only fledging half of what we need to fledge and to have a stable population in the UK we’d need to be fledging 10,000 more chicks every single year,” she said. Unfortunately, in Ireland the situation is even worse than it is in the UK, according to Blackbourn.
Curlews are on the red list in Ireland and it is possible that they will be extinct as a breeding bird in the next few decades. In the 1980, there were around 3,500 breeding breeding pairs in Ireland - now there are only 95.
What can farmers do?
Blackbourn says that farmers and landowners can play a huge part in conservation - such as giving permission for their land to be used for monitoring or getting involved in conservation projects themselves.
The annual report from the Curlew Conservation Programme, a partnership between the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the Department of Agriculture which ended in 2023, last recorded 42 chicks reaching fledging stage in the summer of 2023.
That is up from 19 in 2022.
These birds depend on farmers
Farmers need to be particularly conscious of the curlew’s nesting habits between the middle of March until the end of June – they usually start to lay eggs around 21 April.
Wildlife management specialist Owen Murphy is heading up the Breeding Waders EIP project, which aims to protect wader birds such as the curlew, with the help of farmers.
“What we’re asking farmers to do is not rocket science.
If you ask a farmer themselves how to protect a nest on the ground, they will generally know the answers - not rolling during the breeding season and not knocking meadow during the breeding season.
It’s really making people aware of where these wader birds are and can be,” he said.
The project will train and recruit up to 650 farmers, who farm land in breeding wader hotspots.
Payment
The average payment per annum, according to Murphy, will be between €4,000 and €6,000 per farmer. Some of the actions include cutting back on ivermectin use, rush mulching, clearing scrub, maintenance of hedgerows, removal of predator perches such as a high tree, reduced stocking rates and delayed rolling and mowing dates.
Mink trapping will also be another part of the project and farmers who are near rivers or streams will receive training on how to operate mink traps.
“Stocking density is a big one, if birds are on eggs on the ground – the chances of that nest getting trampled by cattle increases substantially once you go over 1LU/ha. So from 15 March until the end of the breeding season, we ask for a reduced stocking rate.
“Up until the 1950s and 1960s these breeding wader birds and farmers were friends. Farmers, as such, don’t need these birds but they need farmers. These birds depend on farmers,” he said.
The Breeding Waders EIP project will run for five years and is currently in the process of selecting farmers to take part.
The Irish curlew, a large wading bird, is known for its long, curved bill and distinctive call.There are 95 breeding pairs in Ireland.There are eight species of curlew around the world.The oldest known curlew was was approximately 32 years old.The average life span is 11 years.58,500 pairs of curlew breed in the UK, >25% of global population.49% decline in breeding curlews in England between 1995 and 2021.The curlew is a winter visitor to wetlands throughout Ireland. 
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