Snowy Plover
Snowy Plovers are birds of beaches, dry mud, or salt flats. Their pale dorsal coloration blends with their surroundings when they turn and face away from intruders, as is their habit, to hide the more conspicuous dark markings on their head and breast. They nest in a scrape on bare ground where there is little or no vegetation, on broad beaches, or by brackish or salty interior wetlands. Snowy Plovers lay eggs in early May, which are incubated by both parents. In some populations, the female deserts the brood soon after hatching and begins a second clutch with a new mate, leaving the first brood in the care of the male. The chicks are quickly able to feed themselves and, when confronted with danger, scatter and then lie still on the sand, relying on their cryptic coloration to hide them. Nest sites are often grouped together in a loose colony, sometimes near nesting terns.

Snowy Plovers are rarely found at freshwater sites, even during migration. In North America, Snowy Plovers breed along the Pacific Coast from Washington to Baja California (especially from San Francisco south); on the Gulf Coast from Florida to Tamaulipas, Mexico; and locally on salt flats around lakes in the interior West. Outside of the breeding season, Snowy Plovers are found in coastal areas from San Francisco south on the Pacific Coast, and along the Gulf coasts of Florida and Texas, often in mixed groups of shorebirds.
Snowy Plover Range Map

Populations are declining in some areas, especially along the Gulf Coast and parts of the Pacific Coast. The most important factors appear to be loss of coastal habitats to construction of buildings, roads, campgrounds and other facilities, and nest failure caused by disturbances from human activities on beaches. The species has been on the National Audubon Society's Blue List of declining species since the list began in 1972.

Description: Snowy Plovers are small, pale plovers with sand-colored upperparts, and white underparts. The forehead, a narrow superciliary stripe, and a collar around the hindneck are white. Breeding males have a black bar across the front of the crown above the white forehead, and a dark stripe behind the eye. There are small lateral breast patches ahead of the folded wings. These never meet across the breast to form a band as they do on the Semipalmated Plover (C. semipalmatus). This plumage may last from January to November. Breeding females look similar but variable. Some are considerably more dull, with brown markings where the male has black. Nonbreeding plumages likewise replace black markings with brown.

The Piping Plover (C. melodus) is similarly pale colored but has orangish legs and feet, whereas Snowy Plover's legs and feet are grayish. Piping Plovers have a shorter and considerably thicker bill. During breeding season, the Piping Plover's bill is orange with a black tip. The Snowy Plover has a thin black bill. In breeding plumage, the Piping Plover's black bar across the head extends from eye to eye and is not interrupted by the white superciliary stripe, like the Snowy Plover, and the black breast band is complete or nearly so. In all plumages, Piping Plovers lack the black stripe behind the eye typical of Snowy Plovers.


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