A U.K. Man Just Walked 53 Miles Wearing a Giant, Handmade Bird Costume. Here's Why He Did It

As he trekked across the English countryside, 46-year-old Matt Trevelyan caused quite a stir with his attention-grabbing outfit

Sarah Kuta - Daily Correspondent

April 23, 2025



Trevelyan is a former puppet maker, so making the curlew costume was relatively easy for him.
Tessa Bunney

Residents of northern England did a double take when they spotted an unusually large bird wandering around the countryside last weekend. Measuring ten feet long from beak tip to tail, the enormous creature had a long, slender bill and big brown eyes.

“We saw him pass by our field this morning,” one resident wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “Was a bit of a shock.”

But the eye-catching bird wasn’t some new, super-sized species. It was a man dressed in costume, trekking conspicuously to raise awareness about the plight of one of the United Kingdom’s most iconic and threatened birds.

Matt Trevelyan walked 53 miles in total along a route called the Nidderdale Way—all while wearing a handmade outfit designed to look like a Eurasian curlew, the largest wading bird in Europe. He spent three days creating the costume out of split bamboo, muslin and polystyrene. Trevelyan nicknamed his creation “Cathy.”

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-uk-man-just-walked-53-miles-wearing-a-giant-handmade-bird-costume-heres-why-he-did-it-180986492/