|
NPS.gov / Park Home / Learn About the Park / Nature / Animals / Birds / Waterbirds
The family of plovers and lapwings are a group or morphologically similar birds. They all have long legs, large, rounded heads, and short beaks with large eyes. All species in this family feed by looking for invertebrates (lacking a backbone). They do this by their dinstinctive watch-run- peck foraging technique. Although they are classified as wading birds and usually live near water they are birds of the open grassland.
NPS/Intern Tristan Thomas Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus)• Killdeer get their name from the shrill noise they make by wailing kill-deer.• Killdeers have a broken wing act that they use to lead predators away from their nests. This however does not help them when a cow or horse steps on their eggs. To get cows/horses to change directions, Killdeer fluffs up its feathers and displays its tail over its head, and runs at the larger animal. • Killdeer love to eat invertebrates (animals lacking a backbone) like snails, earthworms, crayfish, grasshoppers, and beetles. Identification Information• Size: Robin sized (Medium)• Color: Killdeers are Brownish/Tan on the top and feathers with a white belly.They have two black bands on their neck like a necklace and they ave white and black patches mixed into their brown face.
All of the above information is an abbreviated version of information gathered from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Please visit their website for more in-depth bird information.
|
Last updated: September 16, 2019