Bristle-thighed Curlew

About the Bristle-thighed Curlew

The bristle-thighed curlew (Numenius tahitiensis) is a medium-sized shorebird that breeds in Alaska and winters on tropical Pacific islands. It is known in Mangareva as kivi or kivikivi and in Rakahanga as kihi; it is said to be the origin of the name for the New Zealand flightless bird kiwi although some linguists like Robert Blust has proposed an alternate origin from Proto-Oceanic *kiwiwi, the Pacific golden plover, instead.

The bristle-thighed curlew was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Scolopax and coined the binomial name Scolopax tahitiensis. Gmelin based his description on the "Otaheite curlew" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. "Otaheite" is a former name of Tahiti. The specimen used by Latham was supplied by the naturalist Joseph Banks. Banks had accompanied James Cook on his first voyage to the south Pacific but had also received specimens from Cook's subsequent voyages. The bristle-thighed curlew is now one of nine species placed in the genus Numenius... Wikipedia →