The bird used to be abundant in Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve and has also been spotted lately in Chitwan, but not in large numbers. Eurasian Curlews use their characteristic curved beaks to burrow into wet sand banks after monsoon floods for worms.
The first person to identify a Eurasian Curlew in Kathmandu was the British resident Brian Hodgson in 1844, who reported seeing flocks of them stopping over briefly on their migration. Ornithologist R L Fleming and artist Lain Singh Bangdel in their 1976 book, Birds of Nepal, say the bird is found in Kathmandu Valley. H S Nepali in his unpublished work in 1982, List of Nepalese Bird Specimens, also reports that the bird is found in Kathmandu. However, both bird books probably relied on an earlier sighting in 1970.
Till 20 years ago, Anish Timilsina of the Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve remembers seeing flocks of up to 200 stopping by the river banks to feed, usually in the autumn season. They even used to winter there because of the abundance of food. But for the past decade, he said, they come only in groups of three or four, and some years there are none at all.