Abstract

The recent removal of Slender-billed Curlew from the British List and widespread speculation that the species must already be extinct has prompted a new review of older records of the species in the Middle East. It is suggested that many of the published records from the Middle East, especially those from Iran and Turkey, are either unquestionably erroneous or, at least, might not survive modern levels of scrutiny, and this may dramatically change the accepted chronology of the species' decline towards potential extinction.