Piping Plover

Identificazione

The piping plover is a stout bird with a large rounded head, a short thick neck, and a stubby bill. It is a sand-colored, dull gray/khaki, sparrow-sized shorebird. The adult has yellow-orange legs, the male has a prominent black band across the forehead from eye to eye, and a black ring around the neck during the breeding season. The band on the female's brow is much fainter. During nonbreeding season, the black bands become less pronounced. Its bill is orange with a black tip. It ranges from 15–19 cm (5.9–7.5 in) in length, with a wingspan of 35–41 cm (14–16 in) and a mass of 42–64 g (1.5–2.3 oz).<p>The piping plover's light call is a soft, whistled peep peep given by standing and flying birds. Its frequently heard alarm call is a soft pee-werp, which the second syllable lower pitched.

Tassonomia

American naturalist George Ord described the piping plover in 1824. Two subspecies are recognized, including nominate C. m. melodus of the Atlantic Coast and C. m. circumcinctus of the Great Plains. On average, circumcinctus is darker overall with more contrastingly dark cheeks and lores. Breeding circumcinctus males show more extensive black on forehead and bill-base and more often shows complete breast-bands. Some overlap exists.

Nome scientifico

Charadrius melodus

Autorità

Ord, 1824

Ordine

Caradriformi

Famiglia

Caradriidi

Genere

Charadrius

Areale e habitat

The piping plover lives the majority of its life on open sandy beaches or rocky shores, often in high, dry sections away from water. They can be found on the Atlantic Coast of the U.S. and Canada on the ocean or bay beaches and on the Great Lakes shores. It builds its nests higher on the shore near beach grass and other objects. It is very rare to see a piping plover anywhere outside of sand or rocky beaches/shores while not migrating. Notably, they are considered a disturbance-dependent species due to their habitat's relationship with severe flooding. They need their nesting sites to be far away from the water to be dry for their entire nesting period – yet, they also need to nest in open sand. Often, this combination only occurs in sites which are thoroughly flooded once every few years, which brings in fresh sand and clears away vegetation. As human coastal management strategies worked to minimize unpredictable flooding, their old habitats often became overgrown, and their populations declined. Nowadays, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is forced to artificially clear shoals on the Platte and Missouri River to maintain some of the plovers' remaining habitat in the Great Plains. However, while these efforts are important, they remain inferior to natural periodically flooded habitats. <p>Alongside least terns, piping plovers also have an unusual relationship with mining. Whereas most species predictably suffer habitat loss from mining activities in their area, these birds are known to nest in waste sand piles generated by nearby mines, as the replacement for sand bars. Those sand piles remain topped-up and hostile to vegetation overgrowth as long as the mining activity continues. Often, mining sites end up reclaimed for housing development at the end of their lifespan, which means more construction work, and an extended persistence of waste sand piles. However, modern mining practices typically transport much of this waste sand to more remote areas, often to reuse it commercially, which limits colonization opportunities for these birds.<p>Piping plovers migrate from their northern range in the summer to the south in the winter months, migrating to the Gulf of Mexico, the southern Atlantic coast of the United States and the Caribbean, including The Bahamas. They have also been recorded across Cuba, with rarer occurrences elsewhere throughout the West Indies, and even Ecuador and Venezuela. They begin migrating north in mid-March. Their breeding grounds extend from southern Newfoundland south to the northern parts of South Carolina. Migration south begins in August for some adults and fledglings, and by mid-September most piping plovers have headed south for winter.

Areale riproduttivo

NA : inland se Alberta to sw Ontario (sc Canada) and Great Lakes s to e Colorado and n Kansas; coastal s Newfoundland (e Canada) to North Carolina

Areale non riproduttivo

coastal sw North Atlantic from North Carolina to Florida, coastal Gulf of Mexico to Yucatan Pen.; Bahamas and Greater Antilles (except Jamaica)

Migrazione

Migratori completi

Comportamento

Comportamento migratorio: Migratori completi.

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione: in aumento.

Tendenza della popolazione

in aumento