Species

Piping plover

Charadrius melodus

A pale, sand-coloured plover that winters on Georgia's beaches and is protected as threatened.

Photo Rhododendrites (opens in a new tab) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)

Migration

At a glance

Size: About 17 to 18 cm long
Weight: About 45 to 65 g
Habitat: Sandy beaches, sandflats and inlets
Diet: Marine worms, insects and small crustaceans
In Georgia: An uncommon winter visitor on the coast
Voice: A soft, whistled "peep-lo"
Rabies vector: No

Identification

Key marks: Very pale, the colour of dry sand; short orange bill with a black tip in summer; orange legs; a thin breast band, often incomplete in winter
Told apart from: Semipalmated plover, which is darker brown
Told apart from: Snowy plover, a rare visitor, which has dark legs
Where to look: Sandflats near inlets on the barrier islands, August to April

Behaviour

Piping plovers blend almost perfectly into dry sand. They feed along the tide line and rest in hollows in the sand, where they are easy to overlook.

Why they matter

Piping plovers are federally listed as threatened or endangered, depending on the population, and every one counts. Birds from the Great Lakes, the northern plains and the Atlantic coast all winter in the Southeast, and Georgia's quiet inlets and sandbars are part of what keeps them alive.

Reproduction and lifecycle

Nest — A scrape in sand or shell on beaches
Eggs — Usually four
Incubation — About 25 to 28 days
Chicks — Leave the nest within hours and feed themselves
Flight — At about four weeks
Lifespan — Several years

Living around people

Dogs running on beaches flush resting plovers; keeping dogs on lead where shorebirds gather helps.
Leaving a wide berth around resting birds on sandflats lets them keep the energy they need for migration.

Misconceptions

A bird that lets you walk close is tame. Plovers crouch and freeze to avoid being seen; they are stressed, not tame.

Related species

Seasonal activity

When this species is breeding, and when there are nests on the ground. Mowing during the shaded months is how most nests are found.

Breeding and active nests by month for this species
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Breeding	Jan: no	Feb: no	Mar: no	Apr: no	May: no	Jun: no	Jul: no	Aug: no	Sep: no	Oct: no	Nov: no	Dec: no
Active nests	Jan: no	Feb: no	Mar: no	Apr: no	May: no	Jun: no	Jul: no	Aug: no	Sep: no	Oct: no	Nov: no	Dec: no
Notes	Wintering	Wintering	Leaving for breeding beaches	Last birds leave	Nesting farther north	Nesting	Chicks; first adults return south	Arriving	Wintering birds arrive	Wintering	Wintering	Wintering

Where it lives

Recorded in 42 states and provinces. Each one links to the other animals there, and to the rehabilitators licensed for them.

Canada

Mexico

If you found one

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