Plovers and lapwings | Charadriidae

Plevieren | Chorlitos y avefrías

The bill is short, straight and relatively thick, suited to hunting by sight: the bird runs across exposed mud or grass, stops abruptly and snatches prey from the surface, rather than probing blindly as many other shorebirds do. The large eyes point to a habit of foraging at dusk and after dark, when moonlight or artificial lighting is enough to hunt by. The clutch is usually four pear-shaped eggs laid points inward in a bare scrape on open ground; their mottled pattern lets them vanish against gravel or bare earth. When threatened, a parent will often fake a broken wing to lure predators away from the nest, while the downy chicks flatten themselves to the ground and freeze.