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Grey Plover
Pluvialis squatarola
Identify the Grey Plover by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.
The Grey Plover, known in the Americas as the Black-bellied Plover, is a large, robust plover that breeds on high Arctic tundra and winters on coasts almost worldwide. In summer it has a black face and belly edged with white and a silver-spangled back; in winter it is plain grey. In all plumages it shows black “armpits” in flight. It is a powerful long-distance migrant.
Did you know?
- In North America it is called the Black-bellied Plover.
- It is the only Pluvialis plover with black axillaries in all plumages.
Voice
About the species
Identification
In breeding plumage the underparts are black from bill to legs, the back silvery grey spotted with white, and the sides of the neck and forehead white. The winter plumage resembles a Golden Plover's but greyer, and the heavy bill, black axillaries and three-note, clear “pee-oo-ee” call separate it. It is larger and bulkier than European Golden Plover and has a white rump.
Family
Charadriidae
Size
Large (crow)
Colours
black, white, grey
About the habitat
Breeds on dry, open Arctic tundra; outside the breeding season mudflats, estuaries, sandy and rocky shores and salt marshes, occasionally inland wetlands.
Diet
Mainly marine invertebrates – polychaete worms, small crustaceans and bivalves – picked by sight on tidal flats and beaches; insects on the breeding grounds.
Behaviour
Forages with a run-stop-peck routine, often widely spaced and by the tides, including at night, but gathers in dense flocks at high-tide roosts. Wary, it gives a plaintive, three-note whistle. It makes regular non-stop flights across continents, and young birds usually stay on wintering coasts until their second summer. It nests in a shallow scrape on the tundra.
Sources
Photo: Chuck Homler, Focus On Wildlife, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breeding plumage Black-bellied plover (Pluvialis squatarola) Great Bay Wildlife Management Area, New Jersey, USA.png
Sound: Jochem verweij, XC835257, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/835257
Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions + GBIF regional observations + Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0; GBIF occurrence data; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_plover
 Great Bay Wildlife Management Area, New Jersey, USA.png){kind=link}