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Systematics
Geographic Variation
Slight variation in size and color. For N. p. hudsonicus, see Measurements, below. Color variation from nominate N. p. phaeopus in nw. Europe to N. p. variegatus in e. Siberia is probably clinal; intermediates between N. p. phaeopus and N. p. alboaxillaris occur (Cramp and Simmons 1983).
Subspecies; Related Species
Four subspecies: N. p. hudsonicus in North America; nominate N. p. phaeopus from Iceland to central Siberia, wintering along coasts of Africa and w. Indian Ocean (sparingly from n. Africa to Persian Gulf, rare in Europe north to Denmark); N. p. alboaxillaris in s. Russia, wintering in w. Indian Ocean; and N. p. variegatus in e. Siberia, wintering from Bay of Bengal to Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australasia (Cramp and Simmons 1983). Until 1957, the North American race, N. p. hudsonicus, was a species (Hudsonian Curlew) separate from the three Eurasian races. N. p. hudsonicus is distinct in having brown lower back and rump, uniform with rest of upperparts; nominate N. p. phaeopus and N. p. alboaxillaris have white lower back and rump (N. p. alboaxillaris larger, generally whiter than N. p. phaeopus); N. p. variegatus has a brown back and barred white rump. N. p. hudsonicus and N. p. variegatus are similar in size and smaller than other 2 races, although N. p. phaeopus is similarly small in w. Siberia.
Skeel, Margaret A. and Elizabeth P. Mallory. 1996. Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/219
