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Little ringed plover Charadrius dubius Kentish plover Anarhynchus alexandrinus Lesser sand plover, Anarhynchus mongolus Snowy plover, on the beach at Vandenberg, CA. Plovers (/ ˈ p l ʌ v ər / PLUV-ər, [1] also US: / ˈ p l oʊ v ər / PLOH-vər) [2] are members of a widely distributed group of wading birds of family Charadriidae.
In species where both parents incubate the eggs, females and males vary in the way they share their incubation duties, both within and between species. In some pairs, parents exchange on the nest in the morning and in the evening so that their incubation rhythm follows 24-hour day, in others females and males exchange up to 20 times a day. [5]
Plover eggs were a form of eggs as food, and a seasonal delicacy of western Europe. [1] Gathered from wild green-plover nests, [ 2 ] a practice called plover egging , these eggs were perceived to be particularly flavorful and were snatched up by avid rural foragers and, in turn, their urban customers, as soon as nesting season began each year.
The hooded plover is medium in size for a plover, stocky, and pale in colour. Its length is 190 to 230 mm (7.5–9.1 in) and its wing-span 230 to 440 mm (9.1–17.3 in). It has a black hood and throat with a white collar. Its red bill has a black tip. It has a red eye ring and orange legs. [11] Underparts are white. Males and females are similar.
Eggs have a 26-33 day incubation period, females attend the brood during the day and males at night. Eggs are well camouflaged with a speckled, sandy colouration. [14] Once hatched, plover chicks are well-developed, precocial and cared for by the male parent, as the females will leave their first brood to breed with other males. [7]
It is more similar to Pacific golden plover (Pluvialis fulva) with which it shares grey axillary feathers; it was once considered conspecific under the name "lesser golden plover". [5] The Pacific golden plover is slimmer than the American species, has a shorter primary projection, and longer legs, and is usually yellower on the back.
The piping plover (Charadrius melodus) is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band across the forehead from eye to eye, and a black stripe running along the breast line.
It is also called the New Zealand plover or red-breasted plover, and its Māori names include tūturiwhatu, pukunui, and kūkuruatu. There are two subspecies. The southern subspecies is critically endangered and was nearing extinction with about 70 individuals remaining in 1992. Conservation measures increased this nearly 300 by 2010, but a ...