Why are snowy plovers important?

What is the primary conservation concern for the snowy plover?

The primary conservation concern for the Snowy Plover is habitat alteration and degradation from beachfront development and recreation. Snowy Plovers are especially sensitive to disturbance while nesting.

What is the habitat of the snowy plover?

Habitat. The Snowy Plover is primarily found in open, sandy areas adjacent to water. This includes ocean beaches and barrier islands as well as barren shores of saline lakes inland. They will also use wastewater ponds, reservoir margins, dredge spoils, gravel or sand bars in rivers, salt evaporation ponds, and occasionally in disused parking lots.

What do snowy plovers do at the beach?

Snowy Plovers are active foragers, walking or running across their sandy habitat. At beaches they may forage on dry sand or in wetter areas recently exposed by the tide.

What do snowy plovers eat?

Snowy Plovers eat invertebrates including insects and crustaceans. These include juvenile mole crabs, brine fly larvae, beetles, flies, snails, clams, polychaete worms, and amphipods. Snowy Plovers are active foragers, walking or running across their sandy habitat.

How many snowy plovers are there?

Snowy Plover populations are listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. Partners in Flight estimates a global breeding population of 31,000, of which an estimated 24,000 breed in the U.S.

What is ABCABC doing to help save the snowy plovers?

ABC leads a Gulf Coast conservation effort to identify and provide protective actions for Snowy Plovers and other vulnerable beach-nesting birds. With two of our key partners, Houston Audubon Society and Coastal Bend Bays & Estuary Program, we’re monitoring populations of Snowy Plovers across the upper and central Texas coast.

How does the snowy plover find food?

Its large eyes and acute vision allow it to feed both during the day and at night, when its prey may be more active. This plover’s preferred diet consists of small crustaceans, insects, and tiny fish, as well as mollusks and marine worms. In common with unrelated birds such as the Hermit Thrush, the Snowy Plover uses “foot-pattering” to find food.

Why is the snowy plover endangered?

The Pacific coast population (subspecies nivosus) is federally listed as Threatened in the U.S. The primary conservation concern for the Snowy Plover is habitat alteration and degradation from beachfront development and recreation. Snowy Plovers are especially sensitive to disturbance while nesting.

What is a snowy plover’s habitat?

The Snowy Plover’s preferred habitats are open, sparsely vegetated coastal beaches, salt flats, and the shores of inland alkaline lakes. With its light color, the Snowy Plover is often very well camouflaged on white, sandy beaches and lake beds. There are two recognized subspecies of the Snowy Plover.

What kind of bird is a snowy plover?

The dapper Snowy Plover scurries across sandy habitats as inconspicuously as a puff of sea foam blown by the wind. These pale brown shorebirds are highlighted with a black or brown partial collar and a short black bill.

Where do plovers go in the winter?

Snowy Plover at Point Reyes National Seashore, California. The breeding birds in warmer countries are largely sedentary, but northern and inland populations are migratory, wintering south to the tropics.

Are plovers migratory?

Breeding birds in warmer countries are largely sedentary, but northern and inland populations are migratory, wintering south to the tropics . In North America, the snowy plover breeds from Texas and Oklahoma west to California and up the coastline to Oregon and Washington.

What do snowy plovers do on the beach?

They are hardy survivors that forage for invertebrates on ocean beaches and in desolate salt flats and alkaline lakes. Snowy Plovers make nearly invisible nests on beaches, where they are easily disturbed by humans, dogs, and beach vehicles.

Where do snow plovers live in the winter?

Snowy Plovers are found on barren or sparsely vegetated sand beaches along the coast, and on alkaline flats and river bars farther inland. They winter primarily in coastal areas on beaches and tidal flats. Snowy Plovers breed in loose colonies, and they are gregarious in winter.

What happens when you approach a snowy plover?

Adult Snowy Plovers usually run when approached by humans or predators, but may fly if startled. Adults sometimes feign injury to distract intruders away from nests or chicks. Snowy Plovers typically forage by pausing, running, and pecking at the ground.

What does the snowy plover eat?

This plover’s preferred diet consists of small crustaceans, insects, and tiny fish, as well as mollusks and marine worms. In common with unrelated birds such as the Hermit Thrush, the Snowy Plover uses “foot-pattering” to find food.

What are the threats to the snowy plover?

Invasive vegetation and sea level rise caused by climate change are other threats to Snowy Plover habitat. Multiple Broods, Different Mates. Snowy Plovers are visual foragers, hunting by pausing, running, and pecking at prey spotted on the ground. Their diet consists of small crustaceans, mollusks, marine worms, and insects.

Where do snowy plovers live?

These birds are found along sandy coasts, estuaries, lagoons, brackish inland lakes, open mudflats, reservoirs, and ponds. Snowy plovers live along white beaches. When they move inland they do not travel very far in order to stay in the correct climate and they are able to easily move back to the coast.

How many species of plovers are there in North America?

There are at least seven species of plovers found on the continent. The American Golden-Plover, Black-bellied Plover, Pacific Golden-Plover, Piping Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Snowy Plover and the Wilson’s Plover are native to the continent. The European Golden-Plover is sometimes seen on the northeastern coasts along the Atlantic Ocean.

Where does the snowy plover live?

The Pacific Coast population is known as the “Western” Snowy Plover. A second subspecies is resident along the Pacific slope of South America from Ecuador to Chile. In North America, this plover is a short-distance migrant, with inland populations moving to coastal areas on the Gulf or Pacific Coasts for the winter.

What does a snowy plover look like?

The dapper Snowy Plover scurries across sandy habitats as inconspicuously as a puff of sea foam blown by the wind. These pale brown shorebirds are highlighted with a black or brown partial collar and a short black bill. They are hardy survivors that forage for invertebrates on ocean beaches and in desolate salt flats and alkaline lakes.

Is the snowy plover an endangered bird?

The Snowy Plover is listed as endangered or threatened in several states and is included on the 2014 State of the Birds Watch List. The “Western” Snowy Plover, a population that breeds along Pacific Coast and Baja California, was federally listed as Threatened in 1993.

What is the biggest conservation crisis facing birds today?

The decline of shorebirds represents one of the top conservation crisis facing birds in the world today. Unfortunately, the examples of fading shorebird populations are everywhere, and has been for many years. Overhunting in the late 1800s decimated the Western Hemisphere’s Eskimo curlew.