Piping Plover

Piping Plover Images, Facts and Information:

Charadrius melodus

  • Piping Plovers are small, pale shorebirds with yellow legs, creamy white chests and a single dark band at the throat.
  • Their name is derived from the bell-like calls they make.
  • Piping Plovers will place one foot into wet sand and vibrate it to scare up prey, this is known as foot-trembling.
  • Piping Plover habitat includes sandy beaches and alkali flats of the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts. They are also found inland in the Great Plains near water.
  • Their diet consists of insects and small aquatic invertebrates.
  • Piping Plovers are migratory.
  • Piping plovers lay 3 to 4 eggs which take 26 to 28 days to hatch. Both sexes incubate.
  • A group of plovers is called a “ponderance”, “deceit”, “congregation”, “brace” or a “wing” of plovers.
  • Piping plovers can live up to 11 years.

I hope you enjoy viewing my Piping Plover photos.