Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)

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A Field Guide to Eastern Birds. by Roger Tory Peterson.

Return to Eastern Plovers

Summer Plummage

Winter Plummage

Color Photographs: Copyright Robert Benson, Center for Bioacoustics, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)

Identification: Length from tip of bill to tip of tail 6 to 7 inches.

Summer: Back light gray-brown. Crown of head light gray-brown with a black patch on the forehead. Side of head white with a diffuse brown patch behind and below the eye. Bill half orange and half black. Neck, breast, and undersides white. A black stripe arising at the base of the neck, continued all around the the neck. Legs yellow-orange.

Winter: Similar to the adult, but black, forehead marking absent, and stripe at the base of the neck brown, not black, interrupted.

Similar Species:  The Piping Plover can be mistaken for the Snowy Plover. However the legs and bill of the Snowy Plover are all black, not yellow-orange.

Breeding Range (see map below): The Piping Plover breeds along the Atlantic Coast from Newfoundland south to Maryland. It also breeds around the Great Lakes and in parts of the northern Prairie States and Provinces.

Overwintering Range:  Overwintering birds stay along the southern Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.

Habitat: The Piping plover spends most of its time on sandy beaches or in sandy, open areas inland.

Food: Mostly marine invertebrates along the beach or insects inland.

Behavior:  This species is found on the drier parts of sandy beaches or open sandy soils. The voice is a two-noted peep-lo.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 4 tan eggs marked with small, dark brown spots. The eggs are laid in a sandy depression lined with pepples and shell fragments.