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Stone Curlew

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Stone Curlew

 

(Burhinus oedicnemus; in Russian, avdotka), a cranelike bird. It is sandy gray with black markings and a whitish breast; approximately 45 cm long. The curlew lives in Europe, Middle and South Asia, and North Africa; in the USSR it is found in Kaliningrad Oblast, the south European regions, Transcaucasia, Kazakhstan, and Middle Asia.

The stone curlew lives in deserts and steppes near water. The nocturnal bird feeds on insects, lizards, and small rodents. It lays two (rarely, three) yellowish eggs with dark speckles in a depression in the sand or on the ground; both parents sit on the eggs 26 days. It is a migratory bird.

REFERENCE

Ptitsy Sovetskogo Soiuza, vol. 3. Edited by G. P. Dement’ev and N. A. Gladkov. Moscow, 1951. Page 15.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
Two overground alternatives to the tunnel at Stonehenge would destroy nesting and roosting sites of the secretive stone curlew, claims the RSPB
Historically, these wild falcons were trained and used during winter months to hunt Houbara, Stone curlew and hare, the preferred quarry species in Arabia during winters.
The birds of prey hunt two types of birds - the Houbara Bustard and Karowan (or stone curlew), which are both traditionally hunted in the deserts of the UAE.
His collection included eggs of protected species including: little tern, osprey, avocet, black-tailed godwit, stone curlew, corncrake, chough, peregrine falcon and red-throated diver - as well as 166 nightingale eggs and 87 nightjar eggs.
Last month osprey eggs, believed to have been taken from a nest in Scotland, were seized from a house in Willenhall, Coventry, along with a number of dead birds including chough and stone curlew.
NO doubting the record this week - a stone curlew at Llanddulas!
The Environment and Natural Reserves Authority in Sharjah (ENRAS) confiscated eight traps used in catching stone curlew birds in different areas of the Central region in the emirate last week.
The corpses included rare birds such as a peregrine falcon, a chough, a stone curlew and a corncrake.
Just weeks after a swallow was spotted out of season in Rhyl, a Stone Curlew has been spotted in Wales for the first time ever during this month.
The scheme -- which has 172 agreements in Worcestershire alone -- has seen a marked increase in previously declining bird species, including the stone curlew, bittern, lapwing, reed bunting, greenfinch, pipit, twite and wagtail.
RARE species like the stone curlew, nightjar and sand lizard are facing extinction because of the degradation of much of their heathland habitat, conservationists warned yesterday.
A leading conservation charity called yesterday for new farm subsidy schemes to protect rare birds such as the stone curlew. The RSPB said the system of set-aside should be succeeded by land schemes that will help other farmland species in decline - including skylarks, yellowhammers, lapwings and barn owls.
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