Facts About Piping Plovers

Eight Interesting Things You Might Not Know About the Piping Plover

Jan 14, 2007
Rosemary Drisdelle

Most of us have heard of the Piping Plover, an endangered shorebird of North America and the Caribbean. Many people, however, don't know much about the Piping Plover.

The Piping Plover is an endangered species that has declined largely due to human activities on shorelines throughout its range. For more information on Piping Plovers, see Endangered Piping Plovers. Here are eight interesting facts about Piping Plovers and the shorelines they live on:

The single most important thing you can do if you discover an unprotected Piping Plover nest is to take a few minutes to erect a simple fence of some kind in a wide circle around it, perhaps using sticks and pieces of rope that you find on the beach. Then, don’t hang around—leave the birds in peace and, if possible, notify the nearest Piping Plover Recovery Program of your discovery.
Piping Plovers are found both inland (wetlands, rivers, and lakes in the prairies) and on Atlantic and Caribbean coastal beaches.
Piping Plovers are more often heard than seen: their coloring allows them to blend in perfectly with dry sand and they move along the beach by walking and then stopping for a few moments. The Piping Plover whistles peep-lo, or just peep.
If a predator or a careless human comes too close to Piping Plover chicks or a nest with eggs in it, the adult bird will try to draw the intruder away by pretending to have an injured wing.
Adult plovers don’t bring food to the nest—the Piping Plover chicks follow their parents to mud flats to feed.
Many Piping Plovers are colour-banded and can be identified by unique combinations of the bands on their legs. Birds that breed in Canada and the northern US can be identified, using binoculars, when they are on migration or wintering in the southeastern US, the Caribbean Islands, and Mexico.
Placing brush on flat areas of beach to encourage dune formation, or planting beach grass, does not create good nesting habitat for Piping Plovers—the birds nest in relatively flat areas with little vegetation.
Garbage, food, and fishing offal left on the beach attracts animals like gulls, skunks, and cats that prey on Piping Plovers and their eggs and chicks.

Recovery and conservation programs are ongoing for Piping Plovers and other coastal birds. Donations to the Audubon Coastal Bird Conservation Program are welcome.