Wilson's Plover

IDENTIFICATION: A brown-backed shorebird with a single, broad breast band and a relatively thick bill. Length: 16.5-20 cm.; weight: 55-70 g.

VOICE: A high-pitched, piping call note. Audio (M. Oberle).

HABITAT: Mudflats and salt pans.

HABITS: Especially fond of crustaceans such as fiddler crabs, and will also eat worms, snails, and insects. It forages relatively slowly, either alone or in flocks of other shorebirds. The male builds several sandy, scrape nests, and tries to attract a female with a courtship dance in which he spreads his wings low and dances around her. Both sexes share in incubating the three eggs for 24-25 days, the female doing most of the incubation in the daytime. Young leave the nest soon after hatching, and fledge after 3-4 weeks.

STATUS AND CONSERVATION: A common, permanent resident. Its ground nest is easily disturbed by humans or predators.

RANGE: Breeds along the southern coasts of North America south to northern Brazil and Colombia. In Puerto Rico, regular locations to find this species are at Caño Tiburones Nature Reserve and the salt flats at Cabo Rojo.

TAXONOMY: CHARADRIIFORMES; CHARADRIIDAE; Charadriinae

Photo: H. Golet

Photo: A. Sánchez Muñoz

Photo: A. Sánchez Muñoz

Photo: A. Sánchez Muñoz

Photo: G. Beaton

References

Bent, A.C. 1929. Life histories of North American shore birds, part 2. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 146. (Reprinted by Dover Press, NY, 1962).

Collazo, J.A., B.A. Harrington, J. Grear, and J.A. Colón. 1995. Abundance and distribution of shorebirds at the Cabo Rojo salt flats, Puerto Rico. J. Field Ornithol. 66:424-438.

Corbat, C. A. and P. W. Bergstrom. 2000. Wilson's Plover (Charadrius wilsonia). No. 516 in The Birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal, eds. 1996. Handbook of Birds of the World, Vol. 3. Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Ehrlich, P.R., D.S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birder’s handbook: a field guide to the natural history of North American birds. Simon and Schuster/ Fireside, NY.

Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater. 1986. Shorebirds: an identification guide. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

Paulson, D. 1993. Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest. Univ Washington, Seattle.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Saliva, J.E. 1994. Vieques y su fauna: Vieques wildlife manual. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Boquerón, PR.

Wunderle, J.M., Jr., R.B. Waide, and J. Fernández. 1989. Seasonal abundance of shorebirds in the Jobos estuary in southern Puerto Rico. J. Field Ornithol. 60:329-339.

Wilson's Plover, Spanish text

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