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Piping Plover | Charadrius melodus
Dwergplevier | Chorlo chiflador
The Piping Plover is a small, pale plover that breeds on beaches along the Atlantic coast of North America, on the Great Lakes and on the Great Plains. In the guide area it is a winter visitor, almost only along the Gulf and Caribbean coasts of Mexico, from Tamaulipas to Quintana Roo. On pale sand its colour makes it hard to see until it moves.
Voice
A soft, clear whistled peep-lo or single peep, from which its English and Spanish names derive. In winter the species calls little; often the call is only heard from birds taking off.
Recording: Will Sweet — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
17–18 cm. A small, compact plover with a round head and a short, stubby bill. The upperparts are pale sandy grey, the underparts white. In breeding plumage, which may already be visible in spring, a narrow black band across the forehead, a narrow black breast band that may be broken in the middle, and an orange bill with a black tip. In non-breeding plumage the black is absent; the breast band is then a faint grey patch on the side of the breast and the bill dark. The legs are orange-yellow all year. In flight a clear white wing bar and a white rump with a dark tail tip. Many birds carry colour rings from research programmes on the breeding grounds.
Confusion species
Snowy Plover Anarhynchus nivosus is equally pale but slimmer, with a thin black bill, dark legs and a dark patch on the side of the breast. Semipalmated Plover Charadrius semipalmatus is much darker brown above, with a dark mask. Wilson's Plover Anarhynchus wilsonia is larger and darker, with a heavy black bill. Sanderling Calidris alba uses the same beaches, but has a longer black bill, black legs and the behaviour of a sandpiper.
Habitat
Broad sandy beaches, beach flats and sandbars, especially around river mouths and inlets, and the bare, drying margins of coastal lagoons and salt pans. It feeds along the tideline and on damp sand and mud for worms, small crustaceans and insects; at high tide it rests in the shelter of wrack or small dunes.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Along the Gulf coast of Mexico, with the largest numbers in the Laguna Madre of Tamaulipas, and further along the coasts of Veracruz, Tabasco and Campeche and around the Yucatán Peninsula to Quintana Roo. On the Pacific coast a few records, including in Sonora and Nayarit. Rare in Central America, with single records in Belize, Honduras and Costa Rica. Beyond the guide area it breeds along the Atlantic coast of Canada and the United States, on the Great Lakes and on the northern Great Plains, and winters from North Carolina to Texas, on the Bahamas and on Cuba.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The beaches and sandbars of the Laguna Madre in Tamaulipas, the beaches near Veracruz and the north coast of Yucatán, such as at Progreso and Ría Lagartos, are the main places. The birds often stand still on dry sand, where they only become noticeable when they run a short distance. Colour-ring sightings are passed on to the research programmes on the breeding grounds.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The world population is small and depends heavily on conservation measures on the breeding grounds, where nests on beaches are threatened by recreation, predators and coastal development. In the guide area disturbance and development of beaches, among other places along the coast of Quintana Roo, are the main threats to the wintering birds.
Scientific name
Charadrius melodus | Ord, 1824
Ord described the species in 1824 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Charadrius was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Charadrius is Late Latin, from Ancient Greek kharadrios, a plain-coloured nocturnal bird of ravines and river valleys, from kharadra 'ravine'. melodus is Greek, from melōidos 'melodious', after the clear, piping call. The specimen the first description was based on came from Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey.