Snowy Plover
Charadrius alexandrinus

Description: A pale plover with a sand-colored dorsum, white venter, thin dark bill, dark or grayish feet and legs, and (in adults) a partial breast band, a dark ear patch, and dark bar on the forecrown (during the breeding season, dark marks tend to be darker in males than in females; nonbreeding plumage is duller and the differences between the sexes are not so evident); immatures are pale buff mixed with grayish white on the upperparts (dark markings typical of adult plumage are lacking or scarcely evident), and they have light edges on the dorsal body feathers, resulting in a scaly pattern; total length averages about 16 cm (NGS 1983, Peterson 1990).

Life History:

Reproduction Comments: Rangewide, nesting may occur from mid-March through late summer. Clutch initiation in northern Utah ranged from mid-April to mid-July (Paton and Edwards 1991, 1992; Paton 1995). Clutch size usually three. Incubation reportedly lasts 24 or 27 days, by both sexes. Young are tended by both sexes (or male only), leave nest soon after hatching, fly at 22-31 days. In Utah, most females departed immediately after eggs hatched, whereas males exhibited uniparental care of broods; double-brooding rarely was observed but may have been more common than detected (Paton 1995). Double brooding commonly occurs in California and Oregon; female abandons the first mate and brood within a few days of hatching and renests with a new mate. In Kansas, pairs produce a single brood each season. Reported nest success ranges up to 80% and productivity averages up to 2.0 young per female per nest, though reliable data are difficult to obtain. May nest in loose colony (maximum of 3.3 nests per ha in California). Able to breed in the first year after hatching. In northern Utah, nest spacing was clumped at certain sites, rather than widely dispersed as has been reported for eastern California (Paton and Edwards 1991).

Ecology Comments: Mean annual survival rate was at least 69% (range 58-88%) for a migratory population at the Great Salt Lake, minimally 75% for a mixed migratory-resident population in coastal California, 66% for a migratory population in North Dakota (see Paton 1994). May return to the same nesting area in successive years. NON-BREEDING: usually solitary or in twos, though may form pre-migratory flocks of hundreds in some areas (Paton et al. 1992).

Mobility and Migration Comments: Interior populations are migratory, coastal populations are composed of resident and migratory birds (Paton and Edwards 1990). Breeders from interior western North America winter along the Pacific coast and along the Gulf of California (Page et al. 1995). Plovers banded in the breeding season in eastern California and southern Oregon have been seen in winter in coastal California and Pacific coastal Baja California (Page et al. 1995). Plovers banded in Utah evidently winter primarily along the Gulf of California coast and the west coast of Baja California (Page et al. 1995). Arrives in breeding areas areas in Great Plains and eastern California as early as early April (Jacobs 1986). Most arrive in northern Utah beginning in early April, and nearly all have departed by late September (Paton et al. 1992).

Food Comments: Eats insects, small crustaceans, and other minute invertebrates (Terres 1980). Picks food items from substrate, probes in sand or mud in or near shallow water, sometimes uses foot to stir up prey in shallow water.

Habitat:

Estuarine Habitat(s): Tidal flat/shore

Palustrine Habitat(s): Riparian

Terrestrial Habitat(s): Playa/salt flat, Sand/dune

Habitat Comments: BREEDING: Beaches, dry mud or salt flats, sandy shores of rivers, lakes, and ponds. Nests on the ground on broad open beaches or salt or dry mud flats, where vegetation is sparse or absent (small clumps of vegetation are used for cover by chicks); nests beside or under an object or in open (Page et al. 1985). Sometimes nests on salt evaporators, levees associated with saline ponds, parking lots, dune systems up to a kilometer from the beach, and dredged material. Nests often are subject to flooding. In northern Utah, usually nested in areas devoid of vegetation and selected brine fly exuviae for a nesting substrate when available (Paton and Edwards 1991); nested generally in recently exposed alkaline flats (Paton and Edwards 1992). NON-BREEDING: Primarily coastal areas, such as beaches, flats, lagoons, and salt-evaporation ponds; but also inland at wastewater ponds and saline lakes (Page et al. 1995).

Distribution:

United States: AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, KS, LA, MS, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA

Canada: SK

Status:

NatureServe Status: Global Status: G4, Global Status Last Reviewed: 25Nov1996, Global Status Last Changed: 25Nov1996, Rounded Global Status: G4 - Apparently Secure

Resources: NatureServe Species Profile - Full Report