You can identify these birds by their long, downward-curving bills and their large size — they're the largest sandpipers and the largest shorebirds in North America. Curlews use their long bills to probe deeply under soil and mud for insects, worms and burrowing spiders. Their dark, earthy-colored backs, speckled with buff and white, camouflage curlews on grassland breeding grounds. Their underparts are cinnamon colored.