Plovers and lapwings | Charadriidae

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Compact birds with a large head, a short neck and a short bill thickened towards the tip, made for picking prey off the surface rather than probing into it. They feed with a characteristic pattern of run, stop and peck, also after dark. Black bands across breast and head break up the outline against bare ground. The clutch is usually three or four spotted eggs in a scrape on sand, gravel or closely cropped ground; when danger comes the parents lure an intruder away with a feigned broken wing. Eleven species have been recorded in the region. Killdeer, Wilson's Plover and Snowy Plover breed there; Southern Lapwing from South America occurs on Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the southern islands. Many of the species are winter visitors or passage migrants from North America, such as Grey Plover, American Golden Plover, Semipalmated Plover and Piping Plover, which has an important wintering area in the Bahamas. Migratory species have long, pointed wings.