Semipalmated Plover | Charadrius semipalmatus

Voice

The call is a hoarse, rising chu-weet, the best mark of the species and often the first thing heard from a flock on a flat. When disturbed it also gives a short chip. The display call of the breeding grounds is seldom heard in the Caribbean.

Identification

17–19 cm. A compact plover with a round head and short bill. Upperparts plain dark grey-brown, underparts white, with a single breast band that is black in breeding plumage and brown in winter, a dark mask through the eye and a white forehead patch. The bill is orange with a black tip, in winter mostly dark with some orange at the base; the legs are yellow-orange. A narrow yellow ring surrounds the eye. Juveniles are browner, with a dark bill and pale fringes on the back. In flight it shows a narrow white wingbar. It runs in short bursts, stops, then pecks quickly forward.

Confusion species

Common Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula, a rare vagrant in the region, is almost identical; it has a broader breast band, often a white stripe behind the eye, no web between the middle and inner toes, and a pure whistled call. Wilson's Plover Anarhynchus wilsonia has a much heavier, all-black bill and flesh-coloured legs. Piping Plover Charadrius melodus is far paler and sandy. Killdeer Charadrius vociferus is larger, with two breast bands and an orange-brown rump.

Habitat

Mudflats, tidal flats, muddy and sandy beaches, the edges of salt pans and coastal lagoons, and open spots in mangroves; also settling ponds and exposed shores inland. It forages spread out over the flat, each bird some distance from the next, on small crustaceans, worms and insects. At high tide it roosts in flocks, often with sandpipers.

Range and movements

Throughout the region as a winter visitor and passage migrant: the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Greater Antilles, the Cayman Islands, the Virgin Islands, the Lesser Antilles, the ABC Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and San Andrés. Numerous on islands with extensive mudflats and salt pans, such as Puerto Rico, Cuba and the ABC Islands. Beyond the region it breeds from Alaska to Newfoundland and winters along the coasts from the southern United States to Chile and Argentina.

• Resident
• Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
• Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
• Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

How and when to look

Best looked for on a falling tide on a mudflat or along the edge of a salt pan, where the birds forage spread out. The hoarse chu-weet often gives the species away before it is seen. In a group of small plovers, bill shape and the width of the breast band help to separate Wilson's from Semipalmated.

Conservation status

Not threatened; the population appears stable. In the Caribbean its feeding and roosting sites are under pressure from coastal development, the filling or excavation of salt pans and disturbance by people and dogs. Shorebirds are still hunted on some islands.

Scientific name

Charadrius semipalmatus | Bonaparte, 1825

Bonaparte described the species in 1825 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Charadrius was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Charadrius is Late Latin, from Ancient Greek kharadrios, a plain-coloured nocturnal bird of ravines and river valleys, from kharadra 'ravine'. semipalmatus is Latin for 'half-webbed', from semi 'half' and palma 'palm', after the small webs between the toes. The specimen the first description was based on came from coast of New Jersey.