The special itself was nominated for and won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming.
This series provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The father and son hunters are added for the special.
- Animated Adaptation: Of the book by Fred Bodsworth
- Animation Bump: As with many cases, when Hanna-Barbera were alloted a bigger budget, they didn't cut as many corners.
- Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: The special features a father and son on hunting trips as wraparound segments. It is obvious the son does not want to be a killer, despite his father's gung-ho attitude about the trips.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: The farmer, he immediately grabs a shotgun when the Curlews land on his farm, all with a clear sadistic enjoyment at firing on the two defenseless birds. Needless to say the guy is Jerkass
- Darker and Edgier: By far, this is one of Hanna-Barbera's darkest materials ever to be produced, especially compared to more Lighter and Softer material such as Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones and so on.
- Downer Ending: "Once there were many thousands of eskimo curlews. Then there were two. Now there is one. Soon there will be none."
- Endangered Species: Our lead is one.
- Evil Is Petty: Spot a couple harmless birds hanging around your farm? Well, they need to die. Simply put, the farmer isn't a nice guy.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: While this was aimed at family audiences it used death to send a point. We see countless birds shot out of the sky lying dead on the ground.
- Foreshadowing: The music number is quite upbeat but talks in the past tense, and then turns into a somber ballad. Foreshadowing this happiness will soon end.
- Hope Spot: The male Curlew is given one even after years being alone when he discovers the last female, giving hope to them having babies and the species continuing, however after facing several dangers while migrating any hope of this is lost when the female is fatally shot and dies, leaving the male once again alone.
- Hate Sink: The farmer who spots the mated curlew pair landing on his field to rest. He immediately grabs his double barreled shotgun and fires at them, fatally wounding the female, all while sporting a very nasty Slasher Smile.
- Interspecies Adoption: The Male Curlew falls in with a flock of golden plovers and takes pride in leading them. At the time he was just happy to be around other birds.
- Killed Off for Real: And probably in real life too.
- Last of His Kind: Who do you think?
- Narrator: Lee Vines.
- Not Quite Dead: At first you may think the female is dead when she drops to the ground for the first time, but she is still alive for a short bit longer.
- Stay with Me Until I Die: The male curlew stays with the female until she dies.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Narrator implies this is what humans thought of the curlews. As when one got shot the others would come back to see what had happened.
- Truth in Television: Just like the special says, in real-life the Curlews were once numerous but thanks to unregulated hunting their numbers were so greatly reduced that even by the time protection for the species was put in place it may be too late as there have been no reliable sighting of the species since the 1960’s indicating either they are critically endangered if not already extinct.
- The X of Y: The title.
- Xenofiction: With a few slight touches.
