Six species, and all of them are built around one exaggeration or another of the bill. Curlews carry a long bill that curves down; godwits carry one just as long that runs straight or turns up; the dowitchers carry a shorter, straighter version of the same idea. All of it exists to probe deep into wet mud for things nothing shorter-billed can reach, which is why this group is found at the tideline and the flooded field rather than on dry ground.
Curlews in particular are unmistakable once the bill is visible and genuinely difficult when it isn't — a curlew with its head down, feeding, can read as almost any large brown wader until it lifts its head and the bill does the identifying for you. They are also wary at range in a way many shorebirds are not; a curlew that has clocked you from two hundred metres will often just keep walking away rather than flush, which makes a slow, indirect approach along the tideline more productive than a direct one.
The dowitchers on this page are still to find. All six species are winter visitors to India, so this whole group disappears for roughly half the year.
6Species in India
4Photographed
Tideline and mudWhere to look
WinterWhen they are here
The billWhat settles the ID
The species
Eurasian Whimbrel
Numenius phaeopus3 frames
Status
Winter visitor and passage migrant
Range
Coastal India, with the largest numbers on the west coast and major estuaries
Habitat
Mudflats, tidal creeks, coastal grassland and rocky shore
IUCN
Least Concern
Smaller than Eurasian Curlew and with a shorter, less dramatically curved bill, Whimbrel is told apart most reliably by the head — a strong dark stripe through the eye and another along the crown, split by a pale central line, a pattern Eurasian Curlew lacks entirely. It shares the same probing feeding style and the same wariness at range, but tends to favour rockier and more sheltered coastal ground than the open mudflats Eurasian Curlew works.
FM0067
Sep 2018Osman Sagar, Hyderabad, TelanganaStanding in short grass, downcurved bill and striped crown visible.
Eurasian Curlew
Numenius arquata7 frames
Status
Winter visitor
Range
Coasts and larger wetlands across the subcontinent
Habitat
Tidal mudflats, estuaries, large jheels and wet grassland
IUCN
Near Threatened
The long, evenly decurved bill is longest on females and is unlike anything else this size in India except Whimbrel, which is smaller with a shorter, more sharply kinked bill and a striped crown. In flight Eurasian Curlew shows a pale wedge running up the back, a mark Far Eastern Curlew lacks — the more reliable separator between the two where ranges might overlap. Feeds by probing deep in soft mud and by picking crabs and worms from the surface.
FM0070
Sep 2016 · 600mm · 1/1600 · f/7.1 · ISO 800Nemmeli Great Salt Lake, Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu
Bar-tailed Godwit
Limosa lapponica1 frame
Status
Winter visitor
Range
Coastal India, chiefly large estuaries and mudflats on both coasts
Habitat
Tidal mudflats and sandy shores, rarely far from the coast
IUCN
Near Threatened
A long-billed wader with a subtly upturned bill and a mottled, scalloped brown back that gives it a warmer, more patterned look at rest than Black-tailed Godwit. The two are most easily told apart in flight — Bar-tailed lacks the bold white wing stripe and black tail band that make Black-tailed unmistakable overhead, showing instead a plainer barred tail and no strong wing contrast. At rest, without a flight view, the mottled back and faintly upcurved bill are the marks to lean on.
FM0077
Jan 2021Pulicat Lake, Thiruvallur, Tamil NaduWalking the tideline, long faintly upturned bill and mottled back.
Black-tailed Godwit
Limosa limosa5 frames
Status
Winter visitor
Range
Widespread across India in winter, on both coastal wetlands and large inland waterbodies
Habitat
Flooded fields, tanks, marshes and tidal mudflats
IUCN
Near Threatened
A long, straight-billed godwit that is easiest to name the instant it takes flight — a bold white wing stripe and a black band across an otherwise white tail, visible at real distance and shared with no other Indian shorebird. At rest it is plainer, greyish-brown above with a long orange-based, black-tipped bill, though breeding birds show a warm rufous wash across the head and breast. It favours a wider range of wetland habitat than Bar-tailed, including inland tanks and flooded fields well away from the coast.
FM0078
Apr 2018Osman Sagar Lake, Ranga Reddy, TelanganaStanding at the water's edge, streaked breast and long straight bill.
