Waders, gulls and terns | Charadriiformes

Families in this order

• Plovers and lapwings | Charadriidae22 speciesCompact birds with a large head, a short neck and a short bill thickened towards the tip — made for picking prey off the surface, not for probing into it. They feed with a characteristic pattern of run, stop and peck, also after dark, and many species tremble one foot on wet soil to bring prey to the surface. Black bands across breast and head break up the outline against bare ground, and the heavier lapwings often carry yellow wattles at the base of the bill and a sharp spur or knob on the bend of the wing, with which they strike at intruders near the nest. The clutch is almost always four pear-shaped eggs, points inwards in a scrape on bare gravel, saltpan crust or closely grazed grassland; when danger comes the parents lure the intruder away with a feigned broken wing. Wing shape varies within the family: long and pointed in the species that shuttle between Siberia and the African coast, broad and rounded in the resident birds of the interior, which gives them a slow, flapping flight.
• Stone-curlews | Burhinidae2 speciesLarge yellow eyes and a short, heavy bill with a swollen tip: these are birds of dusk and darkness that spend the day motionless on the ground, where their sandy, streaked plumage makes them hard to separate from the soil. The legs are long, with a conspicuously thickened joint halfway down that gives the group its name, and carry three short, thick toes with no hind toe. They live on dry, stony or sandy open country, often far from water, taking beetles, worms, lizards and mice on foot. The nest is a scrape with two eggs, and as evening falls a far-carrying, wailing call gives them away.
• Pratincoles and coursers | Glareolidae8 speciesA short, arched bill with a wide gape links two very different ways of living within one family: species that snatch insects out of the air on long pointed wings and a forked tail, and species that run on long legs over bare ground and pick up prey as they go. All of them belong to dry, open country — steppe, dried mud, sandy river banks — and the hind toe is small or absent. Two to four well-camouflaged eggs are laid on the bare ground without nesting material, in the aerial feeders often in colonies. The chicks are on their feet at once but are still fed by their parents for weeks.
• Oystercatchers | Haematopodidae2 speciesA long, heavy, laterally flattened orange-red bill is the tool of this family: it is driven like a chisel between the shells of a bivalve or used like a hammer on the shell itself, and it wears down so fast in the work that it grows continuously. With it go short, sturdy legs with three toes, a red eye-ring, and a plumage that is either black and white or wholly black, alike in both sexes. Unlike almost all other waders, the chicks do not feed themselves: opening shellfish takes so much practice that the parents go on feeding them for months. The clutch is two or three eggs in a scrape, and the birds announce themselves in loud, piercing piping displays, small groups walking about with the neck drawn in and the bill pointed down.
• Gulls and terns | Laridae36 speciesThree fully webbed front toes and a small, raised hind toe: these birds can rest on the water, and salt glands above the eyes let them drink sea water as well. Two builds stand side by side within the family: heavier birds with a stout, slightly hooked bill that will eat almost anything they can get hold of, and slighter birds with a thin, pointed bill held downwards while hovering, before they drop into the water. They nest almost always in ground colonies, with one to three blotched eggs; the downy chicks stay at the nest and are fed by both parents, unlike the self-feeding young of the waders. Most species moult twice a year and show a different head pattern in winter, and in the largest species it takes two to four years before the adult plumage is complete.
• Avocets and stilts | Recurvirostridae2 speciesExceptionally long legs and a thin, flexible bill, either straight or curved upwards: waders that walk belly-deep into shallow, often brackish or saline water. The front toes are webbed, so they can also feed while swimming; one build picks prey one at a time from the surface, the other sweeps the half-opened bill sideways through the water and feels what passes between the mandibles. In every species the plumage is a crisp pattern of black and white that changes little between summer and winter. They breed in loose colonies on bare ground beside water, lay three or four eggs in a scrape, and drive intruders off with loud calls and diving attacks.
• Painted-snipes | Rostratulidae1 speciesSnipe-like marsh birds with a long bill that droops slightly at the tip and broad rounded wings that give a slow, owl-like flight. A wide pale spectacle runs round the eye and back past the ear coverts, and a pale brace crosses the shoulder, breaking the bird into pieces among the reeds. Here too the roles are reversed: the female is larger and richer in colour, with a warm chestnut neck, and it is her low repeated booming that carries over the marsh at dusk. She mates with several males, each of which incubates his own clutch and raises the young. They feed at half-light, probing the mud with the bill held slightly open, and when threatened rely first on standing still.
• Sandpipers and snipes | Scolopacidae35 speciesThe bill is not only long and sensitive but mobile: the tip of the upper mandible alone can be raised, so the bird can seize a worm deep in the mud without opening the bill along its whole length. Length and curvature differ greatly from species to species, so that birds feeding side by side on the same flat reach different depths and different prey. The plumage is grey-brown and finely marked, and changes completely twice a year: a conspicuous breeding dress and a plain winter one. Four pear-shaped eggs in a scrape, chicks that find their own food from the first day, and outside the breeding season large flocks that wheel as one over the tidal flats.
• Skuas | Stercorariidae6 speciesGull-like in shape, but with a heavier chest, a strongly hooked bill made up of separate horny plates with a fleshy cere over the base, and sharp, curved claws on webbed feet; females are larger than males. The plumage is brown or grey-brown, in several species with a pale and a dark morph side by side, and a white patch at the base of the primaries flashes in flight. They live largely on what other seabirds catch, forcing gulls and terns in long chases to give up their prey, and they also take eggs, chicks and carrion. They breed on open tundra and moorland, lay two eggs in a scrape and defend it with diving attacks; the rest of the year is spent at sea.
• Buttonquails | Turnicidae3 speciesSmall, squat ground birds that look like quails but are not: they belong to the wader order, and the resemblance comes from doing the same work in the same grass. The hind toe is missing, leaving three toes pointing forward — hence the scientific name. The roles are reversed. The female is larger and more strongly marked, holds a territory and advertises with a deep, far-carrying boom produced with an inflated crop; she lays her eggs and moves on to the next mate. The male incubates alone, in a scrape under a tussock, and raises the young. They leave the nest at once and can flutter after a fortnight — sooner than almost any other bird. They fly rarely and briefly, low over the grass, and would rather be walked over than flushed.
• Sheathbills | Chionidae2 speciesTwo species make up the only bird family confined entirely to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. Black-faced Sheathbill breeds on the Prince Edward Islands, among others. Snowy Sheathbill winters in Patagonia and occasionally turns up on southern African shores, often ship-assisted. Both are stocky, pigeon-sized birds in all-white plumage. The family is named for a horny sheath that saddles the base of the upper mandible. Bare, warty skin around the eye and a bony carpal spur on the wing complete the odd look. They are the only Southern Ocean birds without webbed feet. They live almost wholly on land, walking with a hen-like gait and flying only when they must. As opportunistic scavengers they take carrion, seal placentas, faeces, kelp, invertebrates from the tideline, and penguin eggs and chicks. They also rush penguins at the moment of feeding, jostling them into dropping regurgitated krill. Pairs hold territories within penguin colonies and nest in rock crevices, timing breeding to the penguins' food supply. Of two or three chicks, usually only one fledges. The family is an ancient, isolated shorebird lineage whose closest living relative is probably the Magellanic Plover.
• Crab Plover | Dromadidae1 speciesThe family holds a single species, the Crab Plover, a striking black-and-white shorebird of Indian Ocean coasts. It breeds around the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. Outside the breeding season it spreads down the East African coast to Mozambique and Madagascar, and it is rare farther south. Long grey legs, an upright stance and a bulky head make it look more like a small gull than a plover. Its defining feature is a heavy, black, dagger-shaped bill, used to crack crab shells, stab crabs apart or swallow smaller ones whole. It feeds on tidal flats, reefs and mangrove fringes, keeping to the rhythm of the tides. Much of that feeding happens at dusk and after dark. Its breeding is equally unusual. Birds nest in dense colonies on sandy islands, where each pair digs a burrow that can run well over a metre. At the end it lays a single white egg, something very few shorebirds do. The chick stays in the burrow for weeks and is fed by its parents, rather than feeding itself from hatching like most waders. Flocks keep up noisy, barking calls. DNA studies place the species near the coursers and pratincoles, but as a long-separate lineage.
• Jacanas | Jacanidae2 speciesThere are eight species in this small family, spread across tropical freshwater wetlands worldwide. In this region it is represented by African Jacana and Lesser Jacana. Their hallmark is enormously elongated toes and claws. These spread the bird's weight over a wide area, letting it walk across water lilies, water hyacinth and other floating vegetation. The body is compact, and the flight is short and fluttering with legs trailing. Jacanas pick insects, snails and other invertebrates from leaf surfaces, often flipping a leaf edge to reach prey beneath, and occasionally take seeds. In African Jacana the usual sex roles are reversed. The female is markedly larger than the male, holds a large territory and mates with several males, laying a clutch for each. The male alone builds a flimsy floating nest and incubates the four glossy, black-scrawled eggs. He also raises the chicks by himself, tucking them under his wings when danger threatens so that only a bundle of legs dangles below. Lesser Jacana shows this role reversal far less clearly. Calls are rasping, croaking and chattering. Their closest relatives are the painted-snipes.
• Egyptian Plover | Pluvianidae1 speciesThe family consists of one species, the Egyptian Plover, which lives on the sandbars of large rivers across tropical Africa. Its range runs from Senegal to Ethiopia and south to the Congo Basin and northern Angola. Its pattern is unmistakable. The crown, a broad eye-stripe, the mantle and a breast band are glossy black, set off by white supercilia. The wings are blue-grey and the underparts warm orange-buff. In flight it shows a bold black-and-white wing pattern. It runs briskly over the sand, picking up insects, worms and molluscs. Its nesting departs strikingly from that of other shorebirds. The two or three eggs are buried in a scrape in hot sand rather than sat on in the usual way. By day the parents regulate their temperature by shading them and raking sand over them. In extreme heat they soak their belly feathers in the river and drip water onto the sand to cool the clutch. Chicks too are covered with sand when danger threatens. The tale of the bird picking food from crocodiles' teeth goes back to Herodotus, but it has never been reliably documented. The species was long grouped with the coursers. It is now treated as a distinct, ancient lineage among the plover-like shorebirds, though its exact position remains uncertain.