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Australian Wildlife

  Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula)





Ringed Plover | Charadrius hiaticula photo
Ringed Plover

Image by Andreas Trepte - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Ringed Plover | Charadrius hiaticula photo
Ringed Plover

Image by S?awomir Staszczuk - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Ringed Plover | Charadrius hiaticula photo
Ringed Plovers

Image by Andreas Trepte - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Ringed Plover | Charadrius hiaticula photo
Ringed Plover with wings raised

Image by Andreas Trepte - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)







RINGED PLOVER FACTS

Description
The Ringed Plover is a small shorebird that is a rare vagrant to Australia. The adult breeding plumage has grey back, white underside, white neck collar with broad black neck band below the white collar, black face with white patch above the bill (giving the appearance of black and white bars on face). The eye has grey ring. The non breeding plumage is grey above, white underside, white collar and grey neck band and grey head markings. A bird of this appearance seen in Australia is more likely to be the similar Little Ringed Plover which has yellow eye ring.

Size
18 cm

Habitat
open beaches and mudflats

Food
insects, crustaceans, worms

Breeding
nest on the ground in an open area

Range
breeds across northern Europe, Asia and in Arctic Canada. It a rare vagrant to Australia.

distribution map showing range of Charadrius hiaticula in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.



Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Charadriidae
Genus:Charadrius
Species:hiaticula
Common Name:Ringed Plover

Relatives in same Genus
  Kentish Plover (C. alexandrinus)
  Inland Dotterel (C. australis)
  Double-banded Plover (C. bicinctus)
  Little Ringed Plover (C. dubius)
  Greater Sand Plover (C. leschenaultii)
  Lesser Sand Plover (C. mongolus)
  Red-capped Plover (C. ruficapillus)