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The Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, is a member of the large wader family Scolopacidae. It breeds in the taiga of Siberia, laying four eggs, and is migratory, formerly wintering around the Mediterranean. Slender-billed Curlew is a medium-size curlew, about the same size as a Whimbrel, but more like the Eurasian CurlewEurasian Curlew : Animalia : Chordata : Aves : Charadriiformes : Scolopacidae Numenius arquata Binomial name Numenius arquata Linnaeus, 1758) The Eurasian Curlew or in Europe just Curlew Numenius arquata is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae. It is in plumage. It is mainly greyish brown, with a white rump and lower back. Compared to the Eurasian Curlew, it is whiter on the breast, tail and underwing, and the bill is shorter, slenderer, and slightly straighter at the base. The flank spots are also a different shape, round or heart-shaped spots, rather than arrowhead-shaped marks. The calls are shorter and sharper than those of Eurasian Curlew.

They feed by probing soft mud for small invertebrates, but will also pick other small items off the surface if the opportunity arises. It used to be highly gregarious outside the breeding season, associating with related species.

After a long period of steady decline, it is now extremely rare, with only a minute and still declining population. This is now thought to be under 50 birds, with no more than two or three verified sightings in any year in the last five. As a result it is now listed as critically endangeredAn endangered species is a species whose population is so small that it is in danger of becoming extinct. Many countries have laws offering special protection to these species (forbidding hunting, banning their habitats from development, etc. to prevent t, and is likely in the near future to be the first EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sean bird to become extinct for over 150 years. The cause of the decline is thought to be primarily excessive huntingThis article is about the hunting of prey by human society. For other uses of the word "hunting" see Hunting (disambiguation). For other meanings of the word "hunter" (which redirects here), see Hunter (disambiguation). Hunting is, in its most general sen on the Mediterranean wintering grounds. HabitatA habitat (from the Latin for "it inhabits") is the place where a particular organism usually lives or grows. A biotope is the smallest possible geographic region of a habitat. A biome is the set of flora and fauna which live in a habitat and occupy a cer loss, particularly in the wintering grounds, may also have played a part, but huge areas of suitable forest bog breeding habitat still exist in Siberia.

The last known nest was found in 1924, near Tara (57°N 74°E), in Omsk district, Siberia. Its nesting grounds since then remaining unknown, despite several intensive searches (not surprising, with over 100,000 square kilometres to search). The extent of its decline is also reflected in the absence of wintering birds at previously regular Moroccan sites, although single birds have been seen in Italy and Greece in the last five years. Remarkably, there is also a single recent (4-7 May 1998) record of an immature (one year old) at Druridge Pools in Northumberland, Great Britain.