Shore Plover
Thinornis novaeseelandiae
Very rare, small, stocky plover endemic to New Zealand. Shows an orange bill with black tip, orange eye-ring and legs, and distinctive white “halo” around head, below crown. Males have black mask on face, neck, and throat; mask is dark brown in females. Note broad white wingbar in flight. Juveniles lack face mask. Gives a soft “kleet” call, but territorial song is loud and ringing, similar to oystercatcher piping. Only found on a few predator-free islands around the New Zealand mainland and the Chatham Islands. Some birds have wandered to nearby mainland areas. Juveniles could be confused with juvenile Double-banded Plover (Banded Dotterel) but have much longer bills.
Identification
The shore plover is brown above and white below, with a black (male) or brown (female) mask. There is a distinctive white strip circling its head below its brown skullcap. Its legs and dark-tipped bill are orange, brighter in males.
Taxonomy
The shore plover was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the plovers in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius novaeseelandiae. Gmelin based his description on the "New Zealand plover" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The species had been collected near Queen Charlotte Sound. In the early 2000s the shore plover was moved from the original genus Charadrius to the genus Thinornis, along with the hooded plover. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2015 found Thinornis was embedded within the genus Charadrius. This was confirmed by another study published in 2022, and as a result the shore plover was moved back to Charadrius. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.<p>Thinornis rossii, supposedly from the Auckland Islands, is now generally considered to be a juvenile shore plover with an incorrectly recorded location. Some authorities consider the shore plover a species of Charadrius, and further genetic evidence will be needed to resolve the issue.
- Scientific name
- Thinornis novaeseelandiae
- Authority
- Gmelin, JF, 1789
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Charadriidae
- Genus
- Thinornis
Range and habitat
Although this species was historically found only on the New Zealand coast, subfossil shore plover bones have been recovered from roosts of the extinct laughing owl near rivers many kilometres inland. Cook's second expedition collected them from opposite ends of the South Island, in Fiordland and the Marlborough Sounds. There are 19th century reports of shore plovers from the South Island and several parts of the North Island, but by the 1870s they had vanished from the mainland, surviving only on the Chatham Islands. Introduced predators such as feral cats and Norway rats were the main culprits.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: rising.
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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