Ringed Plover - Charadrius hiaticula

Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula)

Adult Ringed Plover, Birsay, Mainland, Orkney, Scotland, May 2003 - click for larger image

The Ringed Plover breeds along the Arctic shores of eastern Canada, Greenland and Eurasia as well as in Iceland, Scandinavia and western Europe. It is a "leap-frog" migrant with the most northerly breeders travelling the furthest and wintering in southern Africa while the most southerly breeders of Britain are almost year-round residents and become the most northerly wintering populations.

Immature Ringed Plover, Tyninghame, East Lothian, Scotland, June 2002 - click for larger image

It inhabits mainly sea coast preferring wide beaches of sand or shingle with nearby nest sites on dry land. It is also found close by on estuaries, lakes and up rivers. It feeds on small shellfish, molluscs, worms and insects.

The adult has orange legs and the bill is also orange with a black tip. It flies rapidly with clipped wing beats and shows a prominent white wing-bar.

Adult & immature Ringed Plover, Tyninghame, East Lothian, Scotland, June 2002 - click for larger image

The immature, seen in photos 2, 3 and 4 is duller, lacks the orange on the bill and has a reduced or broken breast-band. You can see in the second photo that this immature Ringed Plover has been "ringed".

There are illustrations in HBW, Volume 3, Pages 408 and 422.

Ringed Plover, Tyninghame, East Lothian, Scotland, June 2002 - click for larger image

Ringed Plover, Minsmere, Suffolk, England, March 2005 - click for larger image

Ringed Plover, Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry, Ireland, July 2005 - click for larger image

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