Common ringed plover
The common ringed plover or ringed plover is a species of bird in the family Charadriidae. It breeds across much of northern Eurasia, as well as Greenland.
Taxonomy
The common ringed plover was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Charadrius hiaticula. Linnaeus specified the type locality as "Europa & America" but this is now restricted to Sweden. The specific epithet hiaticula is late Medieval Latin for a plover.Three subspecies are recognised:
- C. h. psammodromus Salomonsen, 1930 – Arctic of North Atlantic: Ellesmere Island and Baffin Island ; Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands and Svalbard
- C. h. hiaticula Linnaeus, 1758 – temperate east North Atlantic region: British Isles and northwest France to south Scandinavia and Baltic States
- C. h. tundrae – Arctic Ocean coasts, islands: north Scandinavia to Chukchi Peninsula including Novaya Zemlya and New Siberian Islands and St. Lawrence Island
Description
Adults are in length with a wingspan. They 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. The legs are orange and only the outer two toes are slightly webbed, unlike the slightly smaller but otherwise very similar semipalmated plover, which has all three toes slightly webbed, and also a marginally narrower breast band; it was in former times included in the present species. Juvenile ringed plovers are duller than the adults in colour, with an often incomplete grey-brown breast band, a dark bill and dull yellowish-grey legs.This species differs from the smaller little ringed plover in leg colour, the head pattern, and the lack of an obvious yellow eye-ring.
Distribution and habitat
The common ringed plover's breeding habitat is open ground on beaches or flats across northern Eurosiberia and in Arctic northeast Canada. Some birds breed inland, and in western Europe they nest as far south as northern France. They are commonly found both in low coastal plains and in cold uplands with sparse vegetation, in open habitats with little or no plant cover, where they nest on the ground.Common ringed plovers are migratory and winter in coastal areas south to Africa. In Norway, geolocators have revealed that adult breeding birds migrate to West Africa. Many birds in Great Britain and northern France are resident throughout the year.
Behaviour and ecology
Breeding
Common ringed plovers breed from one year of age. They are seasonally monogamous and the pair-bond is sometimes maintained from one year to the next. They are solitary nesters and are territorial. Egg laying generally begins in May but the date varies depending on the region. The nest is a shallow scrape lined with pebbles and pieces of vegetation. The clutch is of 3 to 4 eggs. The eggs are laid of intervals of 1 to 3 days and are incubated by both parents beginning after the last or penultimate egg. They hatch after 21 to 27 days. The downy chicks are grey-buff mottled with cinnamon-buff above and white below. The young are precocial and nidifugous. They are cared for by both parents and can feed themselves. While small they are brooded at night and in bad weather. They fledge when aged around 24 days.If a potential predator approaches the nest, the adult will walk away from the scrape, calling to attract the intruder and feigning a broken wing.