bare ground. Behaviour and ecology It is largely nocturnal, particularly when singing its loud wailing songs, which are reminiscent of that of curlews. Food consists of insects and other small invertebrates, and occasionally small reptiles, frogs and rodents. Breeding Eurasian stone-curlews probably first breed when they are three years old. The eggs are laid at two day intervals in a scrape on open ground. The clutch normally consists of 2 eggs which are on average . The eggs are pale buff and are variably spotted, streaked or blotched with brown or purple grey. Both sexes incubate the eggs beginning after the last egg is laid. The eggs hatch after 24–26 days. The precocial young leave the nest soon after hatching and are then cared for by both parents for 36–42 days. Normally only a single brood is raised each year but a replacement clutch is laid after the loss of eggs or the loss of small young. The maximum recorded age recorded from ring-recovery data within the British Isles is 22 years and 4 months for a bird ringed as a nestling in Suffolk in 1990 and caught again in Suffolk in 2012. Status Although categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as of Least Concern, some populations are showing declines due to agricultural intensification. For example, a French population has declined with 26% over 14 years. References Sources External links Ageing and sexing (PDF; 4.7 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze Eurasian stone curlew Birds of Eurasia Birds of North Africa Birds of the Canary Islands Eurasian stone curlew Eurasian stone curlew