{"id":5090,"date":"2012-05-31T03:55:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T09:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=5090"},"modified":"2025-07-08T12:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T17:06:13","slug":"black-bellied-plover-up-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/05\/31\/black-bellied-plover-up-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Black-bellied Plover – Up Close"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult Black-bellied Plover close up – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 310mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the shorebird species I am able to see in Utah during migration that I photographed often while I lived in Florida are the lovely Black-bellied Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Black-bellied Plovers at the largest of the North American plovers and according to my iBird Pro app<\/a> they are also the only American plover that as a hind toe on its foot, that hind toe is often too small to be seen on the field. I looked through my images\u00a0and found one that shows the hind toe on both feet here.\u00a0Thanks to the iBird Pro\u00a0app I learned something new today!<\/p>\n

I was able to get much closer to Black-bellied Plovers in Florida than I have been able to yet\u00a0in Utah but hopefully I will get more opportunities to get “down & dirty” with them here.<\/p>\n

The Black-bellied Plover (almost in breeding plumage) in the image above approached me rather closely while I laid on the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico, I’ve often wondered if it saw its reflection in the glass of my lens and wanted to check it out.<\/p>\n

That’s a mystery I will never solve.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Black-bellied Plover photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the shorebird species I am able to see in Utah during migration that I photographed often while I lived in Florida are the lovely Black-bellied Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,87,25,2000],"tags":[4039,4367,14752,173,4077,4036,5841,275,4162,4017,4891,274,3996,4119],"class_list":["post-5090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-black-bellied-plovers","category-florida","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-beach","tag-black-bellied-plover","tag-coastal-island","tag-gulf-coast","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-low-angle","tag-plover","tag-plovers","tag-pluvialis-squatarola","tag-sand","tag-shore","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-water","tag-waves"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/black-bellied-plover-mia-mcpherson-5268.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1k6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6127,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/09\/17\/black-bellied-plovers-in-breeding-and-nonbreeding-plumage\/","url_meta":{"origin":5090,"position":0},"title":"Black-bellied 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