Black-bellied Plover

The Black-bellied Plover is also known as the Grey Plover which lives in Eurasia and breeds widely in the high Arctic of North America and Eurasia and overwinters in a broad latitudinal range. Equally, at home in temperate and tropical climates, it is truly one of the most wide-ranging shorebird species. In the breeding plumage, Black-bellied Plovers are a dazzling mix of snow white and jet black, accented by checkerboard wings. They are supreme aerialists, both agile and swift, and are readily identified at a great distance by black armpit feathers in all plumages and by their distinctive, mournful-sounding call.

About Black-bellied Plovers

Wary and quick to give alarm calls, the Black-bellied Plover acts as a sentinel for groups of foraging shorebirds worldwide. Its quickness to sound the alarm allowed it to resist market hunters during the heyday of shorebird hunting, and the species remained common while other species crashed. The largest and heaviest of North American plovers, Black-bellied is also the hardiest, breeding farther north than other species, at the very top of the world. It is
also, a very widespread shorebird, occurring on six continents.

These vocal and conspicuous birds are found throughout North America’s coastlines and wetlands, along with the world’s five other continents. These abundant and adaptive birds are endlessly fascinating. Today we will be discussing a little more about these beautiful birds in detail. We will be covering:

● Black-bellied Plover Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Black-bellied Plover Size, Eating Behavior, Habitat
● Black-bellied Plover Range and Migration, Nesting

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Black-bellied Plover Color Pattern

These birds have vivid breeding plumages. Breeding males have white upper parts that are mottled and barred with black, while the markings of breeding females are far more subdued. This is typically a mixture of light and dark brown. Breeding males have solid black underparts from chin to upper belly, with the black underparts heavily intermixed with white for breeding females. The pattern on the trail for adult males is far more contrasting than those of adult females. The amount of sexual dimorphism exhibited among breeding males and females is unusual for shorebirds.

Nonbreeding plumages are much duller, appearing to be gray-brown above with paler gray-brown and white underparts. The belly is white and the breast is pale grayish brown. There are no conspicuous markings on their plumages, making their bodies relatively uniformly colored during the colder months. Juveniles look similar to nonbreeding adults but have a complex pattern of pale dots all over the upper parts along with heavily streaked breasts and sides.

Description and Identification

Black-bellied Plovers are vocal and conspicuous, relatively easily found on beaches and coastal wetlands of all coasts of North America. Look for them on tidal mudflats anytime except high tide, if you are close enough to them you will hear their characteristic alarm call.

In some areas, they also feed along sandy beaches or inland on both wet and dry sod farms or agricultural fields where earthworms and larval beetles, flies, and other insects are abundant. Their breeding plumages especially are very distinct, with the males standing out from other flocks of birds like a sore thumb.

Black-bellied Plover Song

These birds have 2 song types, males sing both of them while declaring or maintaining breeding territories. The other vocalizations are all considered to be calls. The first song is a territorial song, a 3-syllabled whistle that males sing during aerial displays. It breaks in the middle momentarily and lets out the middle syllable at the highest pitch. It sounds like a “koodiloo”, “koodleeeoo”, or even “tiu-li”. There is also a frequent 2-syllabl “kehweh”. Their second song is a trilled song, given when males descend to the ground near females. It has been described as a melodious “pljujutipljujut”, followed by 2–3 additional notes “tiut tiut”, before leading up to the ringing trill “prrlju-juju” for about a second and ending with the usual whistle “tiu-li, tiu-li”.

They also have a variety of calls, more so than many other shorebirds. Their threat call “kleeeear” is given during the ground display between males, while “tiu-ut tiu-ut” is given to rival males during hostile encounters in flight. Alarm calls are given on breeding grounds at or near the nest, typically directed towards intruders of other species, like humans. It can be best described as “kleee, koodlee, keeku-kudleah, or kidloooeeeoo”. Distraction calls are also
given out, a distinct whistled “too-ree” given before the hoarse “kleee” that accompanies distraction displays.

Contact calls are also regular, perhaps to promote flocking or the location of an individual. The fact that these calls are of higher frequency during poor weather further proves the context for this call. This call is also used by males when they approach the nest for incubation. It is a soft, mellow, 2-noted whistle that is rendered as “wheee-er-eee or pee-o-
wee”. Contact calls given to the young are slightly different. They are a quivering trill given to the young that are leaving or entering the nest, stimulating the chicks to approach the parent. Chicks also regularly give peeping notes that serve as contact calls, ushering their parents towards them.

Black-bellied Plover Size

Black-bellied Plovers are chunk, large-headed shorebirds around 11–11.4 inches long. They have a short, thick bill that is heavier than those of golden-plovers, along with long, pointed wings that have a wingspan of 23.2–23.6 inches. They have moderately long legs and weigh about 6–9.7 ounces.

Black-bellied Plover Behavior

These birds run rapidly on land and are not known to walk. They are also one of the fastest and most powerful fliers among shorebirds, able to fly with ease into strong winds. The estimated speed at which they fly is around 24–50 miles per hour. They also short swim distances readily, floating with their rears held high like gulls.

As soon as males return to breeding grounds, they claim territories and begin displaying. They fly slowly with exaggerated wingbeats, high over the territory, singing as they display. They then glide as they descent, with the neck stretched out and wings held straight out from the body. After landing, if a female is present, males may rush toward her, suddenly stop, raise and fan the tail, and hold the bill up. Males defend territories against other males vigorously, lowering the head, raising the tail, and giving out threat calls in a warning. They may also threaten and chase Golden Plovers and other shorebirds.

Black-bellied Plover nests are usually separated by at least a quarter-mile. Both adults defend the nest, share incubation duties, and care for the young. In most places, these Plovers also maintain feeding territories in winter and chase or threaten others that come too near. In places such as farm fields, foraging birds show no signs of maintaining feeding territories and forage quite close to one another.

Black-bellied Plover Diet

Black-bellied Plovers eat invertebrate prey, mostly insects, worms, crustaceans, and bivalves, which they pick or pull from the muddy or sandy ground. Like other plovers, they run forward, pause, look and listen, and then either seize prey quickly or else move on to the next spot, with their large eyes helping them spot prey even at night. On marine mudflats after high tides, Black-bellied Plovers eat many kinds of marine worms (especially nemerteans and polychaetes), tiny bivalves, tiny crustaceans (amphipods, isopods), snails, shrimp, fiddler crabs, and rarely small fish. In rocky habitats, they also eat small sea anemones and sea urchins. On the breeding grounds, their diet includes far more insects, especially larvae of flies, beetles, moths, and butterflies, and they also eat ripe berries of tundra plants before migrating, along with seeds and small amounts of sand or gravel. During migration and winter, farm fields and other open habitats also provide insect larvae, as well as earthworms, cutworms, crickets, and grasshoppers.

Black-bellied Plover Habitat

Black-bellied Plovers breed in the northernmost reaches of North America and Eurasia, in dry tundra as well as wet tundra. They nest in lowlands, never in high mountainous areas, but they do use ridges and foothills. Compared to other high-latitude shorebirds, Black-bellied Plovers nest in many kinds of tundra habitats and they forage in the tundra as well as in wetlands far from the nesting territory. Common plants in nesting areas include black crowberry, red bilberry, lingonberry, bog Labrador tea, arctic willow, net leaf willow, dwarf birch, arctic bell-heather, and purple saxifrage. They also nest in three-toothed saxifrage, Indian milkvetch, smooth northern-rockcress, gray leaf draba, mountain avens, large-flower sandwort, arctic poppy, capitate lousewort, alpine bistort, and many arctic sedges, grasses, mosses, and lichens.

Migrants in the continent’s interior favor lowlands over mountains and may stopover in harvested agricultural fields (both wet and flooded), sod farms, sporting fields, wet prairies, and the muddy or gravelly edges of lakes, ponds, and rivers. Wintering birds use tidal creeks, estuaries, lagoons, and shorelines, where they feed on mudflats and beaches. They often use nearby agricultural fields as well, especially during high tides, when mudflats are underwater. In some places, they forage on rocky shorelines. Black-bellied Plovers roost together at high tide and overnight on beaches. They also roost in saltmarshes, and sometimes in upland habitats like farm fields.

Range and Migration

These long-distance migrants breed throughout much of the Arctic regions in Canada and Alaska. Migration seasons take them through most of the mainland of both Canada and the United States. Most populations prefer the Atlantic coast, although significant numbers migrate through the Pacific coast as well. Birds that migrate through the Pacific coast winter in California, while birds that take the Atlantic route winter along the Caribbean and the northern regions of South America.

Black-bellied Plover Lifecycle

These shorebirds have their only brood of the year during the breeding seasons, laying 3-4 buff to gray-green eggs. Both parents take turns incubating the egg for 26-27 days, with the downy nestlings leaving the nest shortly after hatching. Both parents initially tend to the young birds for the first two weeks. Then the female leaves them when they are 2 weeks old. When predators threaten the young ones, adults lure them away through the broken-wing act and by emitting some distraction calls. The young ones are capable of flight at 35-45 days, with the adult male leaving shortly before they fully fledge.

Nesting

Nest sites are selected by males in a dry, flat spot in the heath or in the gravel. Males begin by making a scrape or a depression on the ground. Females later line it with lichens, moss, willow, and other plants. The resulting nest is around 5.3 inches across and 1.8 inches deep.

Anatomy of a Black-bellied Plover

Black-bellied Plovers are chunk, large-headed shorebirds around 11–11.4 inches long. They have a short, thick bill that is heavier than those of Golden Plovers, along with long, pointed wings that have a wingspan of 23.2–23.6 inches. They have moderately long legs and weigh about 6-9.7 ounces. This bird is the only American plover that has a hind toe on its foot, although the toe is rather hard to see clearly.

Final Thoughts

Black-bellied Plovers are relatively common shorebirds, but their worldwide distribution and arctic nesting grounds make it difficult to estimate population trends. The greatest conservation concern for this and other high-arctic nesters that rely on tidal wetlands is climate change. Rising sea levels are forecast to reduce available foraging habitats for migrants and wintering birds in the near future, and especially rapid warming in the arctic is changing the habitats found there. Regardless, these birds have been considered to be a population of low conservation concern due to their relatively stable numbers.

Plovers spend most of their lives on the ground, running along beaches and flats in search of food. However, in the tropical parts of their range, in the Caribbean and northern South America. These birds are often spotted roosting together in mangrove trees or on posts. These birds are as majestic as they are graceful and are some of the most enigmatic shorebirds in North America. Their graceful flights, quick runs, and lofty swims truly remind one of a creature that seemingly enjoys the best of all the worlds.

Ornithology

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