The 'wailing heath chicken' of Norfolk and Suffolk
The stone-curlew is a strange-looking bird of dry, open places with bare, stony ground or very short vegetation (usually over-grazed by rabbits). Its UK strongholds are in Wiltshire, around Salisbury Plain, and the Brecks, Norfolk. The UK stone-curlew population declined by more than 85 per cent between 1940 and 1985, to a low of around 160 pairs. However, its fortunes have been turned around, and the bird is now in recovery.
The best place to watch stone curlews in Norfolk without disturbing them is from the hides at NWT Weeting Heath, although I have also seen them on the heaths at RSPB Minsmere in Suffolk.
Also known as the ‘heath chicken’, the stone curlew is the only European representative of the Thick-knee family (Burhinidae) and it does indeed have rather knobbly knees. I have also seen the Water Thick-Knee in Zambia and the Spotted Thick-Knee in South Africa, though they were known as ‘dikkops’ at that time.
