page_title: Eskimo curlew
section_title: In popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Eskimo curlew / In popular culture
caption_attribution_description: Eskimo Curlew , Numenius borealis, hand-colored engraving
context_page_description: The Eskimo curlew, or the northern curlew, is a species of curlew in the family Scolopacidae. It was one of the most numerous shorebirds in the tundra of western Arctic Canada and Alaska, with approximately two million birds killed per year in the late 1800s. As there has not been a reliable sighting since 1987 or a confirmed sighting since 1963, the Eskimo curlew is now considered possibly extinct. The bird was about 30 cm long and fed mostly on insects and berries.
context_section_description: The plight of this bird inspired the novel (and subsequent Emmy Award-winning 1972 ABC Afterschool Special) Last of the Curlews.
  The Esquimaux Curlew appears as plate CCCLVII of Audubon's Birds of America.
caption: Illustration by John James Audubon
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