Beach Stone Curlew Spotted!
Beach Stone Curlew - Photo by Jim
A beach stone curlew also known as a beach thick-knee was first spotted at Long Reef in October 2025 and is currently still being spotted (29 November 2025). It caused quite a stir as everyone thought it was a one off, so there have been many bird spotters and photographers at Long Reef trying to find it.
Jim Rothwell was one of those that encountered the curlew: ‘On 12th November my wife Jennie and I saw a beach stone curlew on a small beach on the south side of Long Reef headland at 12.40 pm with rising tide. This area is a marine sanctuary and meant to be dog free which helps I’m sure.’
He also provided us with an extract from the NSW government website: https://threatenedspecies.bionet.nsw.gov.au/profile?id=10280
‘Description - The Beach Stone-curlew is a large, heavy-set wader (up to 56 cm in body length, and with a wingspan of up to 1.1 m), with a large-headed appearance, emphasised by its massive bill, strong legs and a short tail.
Distribution - In Australia, the Beach Stone-curlew occupies coastlines from about Point Cloates in Western Australia, across northern and north-eastern Australia south to north-eastern NSW, with occasional vagrants to south-eastern NSW and Victoria. In NSW, the species occurs regularly to about the Manning River, but recent records show a breeding pair is known from the Port Stephens area (Dowadee Island and Soldiers Point [mid-north coast]) and more recently the species has been recorded at Whale Beach in Twofold Bay near Eden. These new records extend the known limit of the normal range of the species in Australia to the far south coast of NSW. Surveys in 2000 put the NSW population at a minimum of 13 adult birds. Outside Australia, the species also occurs in south-eastern Asia, from the Malay Peninsula through Indonesia and southern New Guinea, east to the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.’
This bird is rare at Long Reef, as it is Near Threatened (NT) globally and Critically Endangered (CE) in NSW. Long Reef provides a protected environment for endangered and migratory bird species, which was a major reason this area was designated as a Marine Protected Area. Sightings like the beach stone curlew highlight the importance of protecting this habitat.
Text by Jim Rothwell and Misima
