Best time to see: Apr to mid Sep
Key facts
Small brown and white wader with black breast and yellow eye-ring
Uncommon summer visitor to Britain, a few nesting in Essex on gravel pits, reservoirs and sewage works
Recognition
Brown upperparts, white below, black on face and breast; yellowish legs and eye-ring; 15 cm
Typical plover feeding action of run-stop-run; feigns injury to draw intruders away from its nest
Eats molluscs and insects; in flight shows no wing-bar
Lifecycle
Trilling courtship song is delivered during a slow, fluttering, bat-like display flight
Nest is a scrape in sand or shingle; 1 or 2 broods March–June; 4 pale buff eggs with dark spots
Winters in equatorial Africa
.jpg)
© Bill Varney
.jpg)
© Pat Allen