Long-billed curlews, known for their exceptionally long bills and lifelong pair bonds, are at the center of naturalist Priyanka Kumar’s new book, The Grassland Queen: An Avian Love Story in the American Plains. Kumar presents the birds as indicators of environmental pressures on the grasslands they depend on.
Kumar says years of observing curlews led her to wonder how they and their chicks fare in hot, dry fields. The book describes curlew parents defending their young from predators and the challenges chicks face as they feed, grow, learn to fly and prepare to migrate to wetlands.
Grassland birds are the fastest-declining group of birds in North America, according to Kumar. She points to industrial agriculture and development as sources of fragmentation, and says some remaining grasslands have become too degraded to support birds. In parts of the Great Plains, megadrought has also reduced the grasshoppers and beetles that curlew chicks need to eat.
Kumar also highlights the broader value of grasslands, describing them as home to wildlife including pronghorns and burrowing owls. She notes that grasses and their seeds—including wheat, rice, rye and oats—provide more than half of the human diet.
The book explores how global warming and other climate stresses affect the ecosystem. Kumar describes grasslands as vulnerable to overheating and severe wildfires, and recalls working in wildfire smoke. She also says that 80 percent of American grasslands are privately owned and that there is no coordinated national strategy to encourage landowners to adopt bird-friendly practices, such as rotational grazing or leaving wild margins along agricultural fields.
Kumar hopes that telling the story of curlews will help readers connect with the birds and pay attention to changes in their habitat. Her account draws on more than two decades of sustained interest in the species and aims to place their lives within the wider drama of grassland wildlife and human activity.
Sources: Psychology Today.