Semipalmated plover

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.<ref name=job>Template:Cite book</ref>

Description

This species weighs a mean 47.4 g (1.7 oz.) for males and 46.1 g (1.6 oz.) for females, with body masses ranging from 37.6-54.7 g (1.3-1.9 oz.).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and measures Template:Convert in length with a Template:Convert mean wing length.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.

File:Charadrius semipalmatus - Semipalmated Plover - XC109656.ogg

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> crustaceans (such as isopods, decapods and copepods)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and worms (such as polychaetes).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They also consume small molluscs including bivalves and gastropods, including snails such as coffee bean snails and Odostomia laevigata.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These opportunistic feeders also feed on berries or seeds from grasslands or cultivated fields.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This bird resembles the killdeer but is much smaller and has only one band.<ref>Kaufman, Kenn. (2000) Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America. New York: Houghton-Mifflin.</ref> 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.<ref>University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Charadrius_semipalmatus/</ref>

Gallery

• Semipalmatedplover-santafeisland.jpg

  Galápagos Islands

• Semipalmated Plover, broken wing display.jpg

  "Broken wing" display

• Charadrius-semipalmatus-002.jpg

  Juvenile

• Charadrius semipalmatus (Audubon).jpg

  Illustration (John James Audubon)

External links

• Semipalmated plover species account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Semipalmated plover - Charadrius semipalmatus - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• Semipalmated plover, Environment Canada
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• Template:VIREO
• Template:IUCN Map