- Appearance:brown/tan on top of body, white below; head, neck, wings, and tail are striped with black and white; round head; red eyes; long wings; rust-colored tail
- Male has stouter beak than female, otherwise minimal differences
- Named after high-pitched “kee-dee” call: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Killdeer/sounds
- In the 1700s, naturalists would call them Chattering Plover or Noisy Plover because they are very vocal
- Length: 8-11 inches (less than 1 foot)
- Wingspan: 18-19 inches (~1.5 feet)
- Status:common, populations decreasing
- 47% decline 1966-2014, mostly in Canada and western United States
- Vulnerable to pollution, pesticide poisoning, and collisions with cars/buildings
- Habitat
- Sandbars, mudflats, grazed fields, lawns, parking lots, airports, golf courses
- Prefer areas with grass ~1 inch tall
- One of least water-associated shorebirds, willing to live in inland habitats
- This species of plover is willing to nest close to areas with high human activity, which makes them more adaptive to loss of natural habitat
- However, they can be pests when they nest in people’s lawns
- Found seasonally across North America and Central America, but avoid areas as far north as Alaska
- Sandbars, mudflats, grazed fields, lawns, parking lots, airports, golf courses
- Diet
- Invertebrates: crayfish, aquatic insect larvae, earthworms, snails, insects
- Run a few steps across the ground, stop, peck and ground, then continue to run
- Forage by foot, but are noisiest when they take flight
- Feeds at any time of day, sometimes active at night
- Follow farmers’ plows in hopes that worms/insects will be turned up
- Sometimes eat seeds and grains from agricultural fields
- This helps to naturally manage pests on farmland
- Will eat carrion, but only if there is little other food available
- Migration
- Found year-round across most of the United States and Caribbean Isles
- Migratory populations breed in northern United States/Canada and overwinter in Mexico/Central America
- Year-round residents of Long Island, but upstate populations migrate
- Spring migration is usually as early as February, as arctic ice melts
- One of last species of wading birds to migrate south, sometimes even waiting until first freezes in December before they leave
- Killdeer are not colonial birds – usually forage and migrate alone
- Killdeer can fly anywhere from 28-55 mph
- Nesting
- Nest on flat, open land in solitary pairs, rarely in colonies of no more than ~100
- Usually colonial nesting is loose and only occurs in places with only a few areas of favorable habitat
- A group of killdeer, though uncommon, is called a “season”
- One mate per year, breeding pair only stays together for a few years
- Average brood 3-6 tan eggs with black/brown markings, may lay 2nd brood in warm climates or if anything happens to 1st brood, may even lay 3rd brood
- Build nests from scrapes in ground, over time fill it with pebbles and vegetation
- Parents will sometimes throw materials over their shoulders into nest as they are leaving to forage
- Nests are vulnerable to being crushed by humans, animals, or vehicles
- If a potential predator approaches nest, killdeer pretend to be injured to distract the threat – this is called “broken wing display”
- Sometimes parents will charge at approaching large, hoofed animals (cow, horse, deer, etc.) to make them change direction
- Juveniles have paler feathers than adults, mature after 1 year
- Fledglings learn to fly after only about 25 days
- Average lifespan is 3-5 years, but oldest killdeer was about 11 years old
- Nest on flat, open land in solitary pairs, rarely in colonies of no more than ~100
