(c) Sidney Maddock
|
The Piping Plover is a small, pale shorebird that inhabits beaches, shorelines, and dry lakebeds. It is threatened or endangered throughout its relatively small range. Many beach-goers are familiar with the fencing and warning signs that have been erected around breeding sites critical to the recovery of this species.
The Piping Plover is a small shorebird, measuring about 7 inches in length, and weighing only about 2 ounces. The species' pale tan upper parts help it to blend with its sandy habitat. The birds under parts are white, and the legs are yellow-orange. The plover's short bill is orange with a black tip during the breeding season, but entirely black during non-breeding months. In breeding season the birds sport a black forehead bar and a thin, black collar that is often discontinuous. Males and females have similar plumages.
Unlike most shorebirds the Piping Plover inhabits just one continent: North America. Once commonly seen in all suitable shoreline habitat east of the Rocky Mountains, the Piping Plover now has a patchy distribution within three small breeding populations in Canada and the United States: the northern Great Plains, around two of the Great Lakes, and along a limited stretch of the Atlantic coast. It winters along the coasts of the southeastern U.S., northeastern Mexico, and the northern Caribbean.
The Piping Plover nests and feeds on sandy beaches near water including; sandbars in rivers, sand flats near alkali lakes, and Atlantic Ocean beaches. It winters on coastal tidal flats and beaches.
The Piping Plover feeds on insects and invertebrates along the waterline. Like other plovers this species runs a few feet and then stops, scans, and pecks at the prey it locates. It also hunts for insects on higher beach near nest site areas.
The male Piping Plover defends a territory on an open beach, where he performs aerial displays to attract a female. New pairs are usually formed every year. The male then creates a shallow nest scrape near a clump of vegetation, a log, or some other object. This species may also nest in association with tern colonies. Up to four eggs are tended and incubated by both parents for several weeks. The downy young leave the nest and feed only hours after hatching.
The Piping Plover is not often seen during migration; this species may move to its wintering grounds in one overnight flight.
Haig, S.M. 1992. Piping Plover(
Charadrius melodus). In
The Birds of North America, No. 2 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C:The American Ornithologists' Union.
Hecker, S. 2006. Piping Plover Fact Sheet. National Audubon Society, Audubon Coastal Bird Conservation Program.
Kaufman, Kenn.1996.
Lives of North American Birds. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.
