Species/Slender-billed curlew
Slender-billed curlew
Numenius tenuirostris
- Range
- Formerly bred in western Siberia; wintered in Mediterranean wetlands
- Population
- Zero. Last confirmed record: Morocco, February 1995
- Trend
- extinct
- Last assessed
- 2025
Declared extinct in 2025 — the first global bird extinction in mainland Eurasia and Africa in recent centuries. Thirty years of searching after the last photograph did not produce another bird.
It did not vanish in a fire. It vanished in drainage ditches and hunting bags while the rest of us had other tabs open.
Threats
- Wetland drainage
- Hunting
- Agricultural conversion
What you can do
- Read BirdLife’s 2026 flyways report
45% of migratory birds are now in decline.
Protect remaining wetlands
The next curlew is already on a shrinking lagoon.
On the pulse
45% of migratory birds are now in decline
BirdLife’s State of the World’s Birds, released at the Global Flyways Summit in Nairobi. One in nine bird species is threatened. Wetlands, seas, and forests are the common denominator.
Source: BirdLife International
Slender-billed curlew declared extinct
BirdLife and IUCN confirmed the first global bird extinction in mainland Eurasia and Africa in recent centuries. Last photograph: a Moroccan lagoon, February 1995. Thirty years of searching did not find another.
Source: BirdLife International / IUCN