Killdeer

Photo © by BigSkyBirds
South of Great Falls, Montana, USA, April 2005

Charadrius vociferus

Identification

20–28 cm (7¾-11 in)
The only North American plover with a double black breast band.

• Orange-brown rump and upper tail

Distribution

Chick - Juvenile
Photo © by Victor Vector
Mojave Narrows Regional Park, California, USA, 29 April 2021

Breeds throughout much of North America as far north as south Alaska and central Canada and winters in Atlantic and Pacific states and in the southernn USA southwards. In the east breeds north to Quebec and Newfoundland and occasionally taken north to Newfoundland in late autumn and winter by storms on the Atlantic coast. This is the origin of transatlantic stragglers.

Vagrants recorded in Iceland, Faroes and British Isles, south to Spain, Portugal and the Azores and east to Hungary and Romania. Most records come from the British Isles (c.47 British records) in late autumn, winter and early spring and although well-scattered the majority are in the south-west and especially on Scilly.

Taxonomy

C. v. vociferous
Photo © by Stanley Jones
Brazos County, Texas, USA, 09 April 2021

Subspecies

Photo © by raymondjbarlow
Fifty Point Conservation Area, Stoney Creek, Ontario, May 2007

There are 3 subspecies¹:

• C. v. vociferus - Canada, US and Mexico; winters to north-western South America
• C. v. ternominatus - Greater Antilles
• C. v. peruvianus - Peru and north-western Chile

Habitat

Display
Photo © by Kadawe
Newbury, Massachusetts, March 2016

Open grassy land including pastures, lawns, airfields and golf courses. Also mudflats, along shorelines and beside gravel-pits, especially in winter.

Behaviour

For Head Detail
Photo © by Stanley Jones
Brazos County, Texas, USA, 29 May 2021

Notorious for its "broken-wing" display to distract predators from nests and young.

Diet

Their diet consists almost entirely of insects, particularly beetles and flies; with the addition of grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, dragonflies, millipedes, worms, snail and, spiders.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Wiersma, P., Kirwan, G.M. & Boesman, P. (2019). Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/53827 on 18 August 2019).

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Killdeer. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 3 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Killdeer

External Links

Search for photos of Killdeer in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.