Semipalmated plover

Last updated

Semipalmated plover
Semipalmated plover in Quogue (26942).jpg
Breeding plumage in Long Island, New York
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Charadriidae
Genus: Charadrius
Species:
C. semipalmatus
Binomial name
Charadrius semipalmatus
Bonaparte, 1825
shenandoah national park
Charadrius semipalmatus map.svg
Synonyms

Charadrius hiaticula semipalmatus

The semipalmated plover (Charadrius semipalmatus) is a small plover. Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys (kharadra, "ravine"). The specific semipalmatus is Latin and comes from semi, "half" and palma, "palm". Like the English name, this refers to its only partially webbed feet. [2]

Contents

Description

This species weighs 22–63 g (0.78–2.22 oz) and measures 14–20 cm (5.5–7.9 in) in length and 35–56 cm (14–22 in) across the wings. [3] Adults have a grey-brown back and wings, a white belly, and a white breast with one black neckband. They have a brown cap, a white forehead, a black mask around the eyes and a short orange and black bill.

Vocalization

Habitat

Their breeding habitat is open ground on beaches or flats across northern Canada and Alaska. They nest on the ground in an open area with little or no plant growth.

They are migratory and winter in coastal areas of the southern United States, the Caribbean and much of South America. They are extremely rare vagrants to western Europe, and have been found in Tierra del Fuego and the Isles of Scilly. [4] Their true status may be obscured by the difficulty in identifying them from the very similar ringed plover of Eurasia, of which it was formerly considered a subspecies.

Behavior

Semipalmated plovers forage for food on beaches, tidal flats and fields, usually by sight. They eat insects (such as the larvae of long-legged and beach flies, larvae of soldier flies and shore flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers and Ochtebius beetles), spiders, [5] crustaceans (such as isopods, decapods and copepods) [6] and worms (such as polychaetes). [7] They also consume small molluscs including bivalves and gastropods, including snails such as coffee bean snails and Odostomia laevigata . [8] These opportunistic feeders also feed on berries or seeds from grasslands or cultivated fields. [9] This bird resembles the killdeer but is much smaller and has only one band. [10] Since the semipalmated plover nests on the ground, it uses a "broken-wing" display to lure intruders away from the nest, in a display similar to the related killdeer. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killdeer</span> Shorebird found in the Americas

The killdeer is a large plover found in the Americas. It gets its name from its shrill, two-syllable call, which is often heard. It was described and given its current scientific name in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae. Three subspecies are described. Its upperparts are mostly brown with rufous fringes, the head has patches of white and black, and two black bands cross the breast. The belly and the rest of the breast are white. The nominate subspecies breeds from southeastern Alaska and southern Canada to Mexico. It is seen year-round in the southern half of its breeding range; the subspecies C. v. ternominatus is resident in the West Indies, and C. v. peruvianus inhabits Peru and surrounding South American countries throughout the year. North American breeders winter from their resident range south to Central America, the West Indies, and the northernmost portions of South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common ringed plover</span> Species of bird

The common ringed plover or ringed plover is a small plover that breeds in Arctic Eurasia. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys. The specific hiaticula is Latin and has a similar meaning to the Greek term, coming from hiatus, "cleft" and -cola, "dweller".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey plover</span> Species of bird

The grey plover, known as the black-bellied plover in North America, is a large cosmopolitan plover breeding in Arctic regions. It is a long-distance migrant, with a nearly worldwide coastal distribution when not breeding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American golden plover</span> Species of bird

The American golden plover, is a medium-sized plover. The genus name is Latin and means relating to rain, from pluvia, "rain". It was believed that golden plovers flocked when rain was imminent. The species name dominica refers to Santo Domingo, now Hispaniola, in the West Indies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little ringed plover</span> Species of bird

The little ringed plover is a small plover. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in river valleys. The specific dubius is Latin for doubtful, since Sonnerat, writing in 1776, thought this bird might be just a variant of common ringed plover.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snowy plover</span> Species of bird

The snowy plover is a small wader in the plover bird family, typically about 5-7" in length. It breeds in the southern and western United States, the Caribbean, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. Long considered to be a subspecies of the Kentish plover, it is now known to be a distinct species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian dotterel</span> Species of bird

The Eurasian dotterel, also known in Europe as just dotterel, is a small wader in the plover family of birds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater sand plover</span> Species of bird

The Greater sand plover is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as "greater sandplover" or "greater sand-plover", but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "Greater Sand Plover". The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys. The specific leschenaultii commemorates the French botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siberian sand plover</span> Species of bird

The Siberian sand plover is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The International Ornithologists' Union split the Tibetan sand plover from the lesser sand plover and changed its vernacular name to Siberian sand plover. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios (χἄραδριός), a bird found in ravines and river valleys ; a curlew according to Liddell and Scott. The specific mongolus is Latin and refers to Mongolia, which at the time of naming referred to a larger area than the present country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caspian plover</span> Species of bird

The Caspian plover is a wader in the plover family of birds. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys. The specific asiaticus is Latin and means "Asian", although in binomials it usually means the type locality was India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American purple gallinule</span> Species of bird

The purple gallinule is a swamphen in the genus Porphyrio. It is in the order Gruiformes, meaning "crane-like", an order which also contains cranes, rails, and crakes. The purple gallinule is a rail species, placing it into the family Rallidae. It is also known locally as the yellow-legged gallinule. The specific name martinica denotes "of Martinique".

<i>Charadrius</i> Genus of birds

Charadrius is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. They are found throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kittlitz's plover</span> Species of bird

Kittlitz's plover is a small shorebird in the family Charadriidae that breeds near coastal and inland saltmarshes, sandy or muddy riverbanks or alkaline grasslands with short vegetation. It is native to much of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Nile Delta and Madagascar. It is thought to be mainly polygamous and has monomorphic plumage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collared plover</span> Species of bird

The collared plover is a small shorebird in the plover family, Charadriidae. It lives along coasts and riverbanks of the tropical to temperate Americas, from central Mexico south to Chile and Argentina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double-banded plover</span> Species of bird

The double-banded plover, known as the banded dotterel or pohowera in New Zealand, is a species of bird in the plover family. Two subspecies are recognised: the nominate Charadrius bicinctus bicinctus, which breeds throughout New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands, and Charadrius bicinctus exilis, which breeds in New Zealand's subantarctic Auckland Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-fronted plover</span> Species of shorebird of the family Charadriidae from Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar

The white-fronted plover or white-fronted sandplover is a small shorebird of the family Charadriidae that inhabits sandy beaches, dunes, mudflats and the shores of rivers and lakes in sub-saharan Africa and Madagascar. It nests in small shallow scrapes in the ground and lays clutches of one to three eggs. The species is monogamous and long-lived, with a life expectancy of approximately 12 years. The vast majority of pairs that mate together stay together during the following years of breeding and retain the same territory. The white-fronted plover has a similar appearance to the Kentish plover, with a white fore crown and dark bands connecting the eyes to the bill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-capped plover</span> Species of bird

The red-capped plover, also known as the red-capped dotterel, is a small species of plover.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kentish plover</span> Species of bird

The Kentish plover is a small cosmopolitan shorebird of the family Charadriidae that breeds on the shores of saline lakes, lagoons, and coasts, populating sand dunes, marshes, semi-arid desert, and tundra. Both male and female birds have pale plumages with a white underside, grey/brown back, dark legs and a dark bill; however, additionally the male birds also exhibit very dark incomplete breast bands, and dark markings either side of their head, therefore the Kentish plover is regarded as sexually dimorphic

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-billed plover</span> Species of bird

The long-billed plover is a species of wading bird in the family Charadriidae. It can be found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The long-billed plover is a migratory bird, so it breeds and spends the winter in different parts of its range. This bird can often be spotted along the shores of rivers, streams, in wetlands, and rice fields. It forages on the shoreline primarily for aquatic insects, insect larvae, and other invertebrates. It is difficult to distinguish between male and female individuals because of their similar plumage. The breeding season starts at the end of February or early March and ends in July. A male and a female forms a monogamous pair and maintains their territory throughout the breeding season. A global population survey in 2016 assessed the long-billed plover as a species of least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pied plover</span> Species of bird

The pied plover, also known as the pied lapwing, is a species of bird in the family Charadriidae. It is a bird of least concern according to the IUCN and can be found in northern South America. The species name cayanus refers to Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, where the pied plover can be found.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Charadrius semipalmatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp.  99, 353. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  3. CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), ISBN   978-0-8493-4258-5.
  4. Coomber, Richard (1991). "Charadriiformes: Plovers". Birds of the World. Godalming, Surrey: Colour Library Books Ltd. pp.  97–100. ISBN   0862838061.
  5. "Charadrius semipalmatus (Semipalmated plover)". Animal Diversity Web .
  6. "Charadrius semipalmatus (Semipalmated plover)". Animal Diversity Web .
  7. "Charadrius semipalmatus (Semipalmated plover)". Animal Diversity Web .
  8. "Charadrius semipalmatus (Semipalmated plover)". Animal Diversity Web .
  9. "Charadrius semipalmatus (Semipalmated plover)". Animal Diversity Web .
  10. Kaufman, Kenn. (2000) Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America. New York: Houghton-Mifflin.
  11. University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Charadrius_semipalmatus/