killdeer

Did you know?

Killdeer use a broken-wing display to distract predators away from nest or chicks.

 

Killdeer

Charadrius vociferus

This noisy bird gets both its common and Latin names from its distinctive call. The common name tells us what it says, while the second part of the Latin name, vociferus, describes the tone of its noisy cry.

Appearance

  • Member of the plover family
  • Measures from bill-tip to tail-tip 23 to 28 cm, and it weighs up to 100 grams
  • Two black bands across the white chest and an orange-coloured lower back, rump, and tail are its most distinctive markings. A white collar and white above the bill contrast with the brownish cap and the dark band below the eye and around the nape, or back, of the neck.

Habitat: Open places, such as fields, pastures, and dry upland, sandbars, mudflats, athletic fields, airports, golf courses, gravel parking lots and graveled rooftops.

Range: Breeds from east-central Alaska across northern Canada, southward to southern Mexico and the Caribbean. Also disconnected populations in Costa Rica, coastal Peru, and northwestern Chile.

Winters from southeastern Alaska (rarely), southern and coastal British Columbia, southern Midwestern states, and coastal Massachusetts southward through rest of breeding range and northern and western South America.

Diet: Terrestrial invertebrates, especially earthworms, grasshoppers, beetles and snails. Occasionally small vertebrates and seeds.

Breeding

  • Both male and female take part in all nesting activities
  • Female lays 4 pear-shaped, speckled eggs
  • Adult birds incubate the eggs for 24 to 26 days until they are ready to hatch

Status and Conservation Issues

  • Protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act of 1917
  • Regained their former abundance due to protection from hunting and egg gathering
  • Vulnerable to pesticide poisoning and collisions with cars and building

Interesting Facts

  • Uses a broken-wing display involving walking away from its nesting area holding its wing in a position that simulates an injury and then flapping around on the ground emitting a distress call.
  • Useful to farmers because it eats pests harmful to agriculture.
  • Eats nuisance insects such as mosquitoes and ticks.
  • Classified as a shorebird, although it is often found some distance from water.
  • Gravel rooftops attract killdeer for nesting. But these can be dangerous places to raise a brood. Chicks may be unable to leave a roof. When adults lure chicks off the roof, the chicks may die from the fall.
 
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