Stone Curlew Call MP3s
An accurate recording of the Stone Curlew's eerie, wailing night call, widely used in conservation survey work.
Also known as
Recordings (3)
About this species
The Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) is a passerine songbird of around 42 cm — cryptic sandy-brown with a staring yellow eye and long, knobbly yellow legs. It haunts dry, stony heath, downland and bare cultivated ground.
After dark it gives an eerie, wailing 'cur-lee' that carries across the silent heath. It hunts beetles, worms and small reptiles and mammals across bare, stony ground. Active mainly after dark, it freezes among stones by day, relying on its cryptic plumage. Its voice is woven into the soundscape of the European countryside through spring and summer.
Legal use
The Stone Curlew is a Schedule 1 protected species under the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act and is listed on Annex I of the EU Birds Directive, reflecting an unfavourable conservation status across much of its European range, including its breeding range extending into France; it is not a legally huntable game bird in the UK. We have not been able to independently verify its precise hunting-law status in every EU country it occurs in (including France), so treat any claim of blanket EU-wide protection as a strong likelihood rather than a confirmed fact for every jurisdiction, and it faces disturbance and habitat pressure on some wintering grounds outside Europe. This recording is intended for conservation survey work, breeding-territory monitoring, and identification, not hunting. Because protected-species and playback rules differ by country, please check our full country-by-country disclaimer before using this audio in the field.