Plovers ( , ) are members of a widely distributed group of wading birds of the family Charadriidae. The term "plover" applies to all the members of the family, though only about half of them include it in their name.
Species list in taxonomic sequence The taxonomy of family Charadriidae is unsettled. At various times the plovers, dotterels, and lapwings of family Charadriidae have been distributed among several subfamilies, with Charadriinae including most of the species. The International Ornithological Congress (IOC) and the Clements taxonomy do not assign species to subfamilies. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) includes all of the species in Charadriinae. The North American Classification Committee of the AOS and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World separate the four members of genus Pluvialis as subfamily Pluvialinae. In the past, the lapwings in the genus Vanellus were widely treated in a further subfamily Vanellinae, but this was subsequently found to leave the Charadriinae paraphyletic, with the genus Anarhynchus, mostly long included within Charadrius, being more closely related to Vanellus than it is to Charadrius, despite the close plumage and structural similarities between Anarhynchus and Charadrius.
The IOC accepts the following 69 species of plovers, dotterels, and lapwings in the family Charadriidae. They are distributed among 11 genera, some of which have only one species. This list is presented according to the IOC taxonomic sequence and can also be sorted alphabetically by common name and binomial.
Common nameBinomial name + authorityIOC sequenceGrey ploverPluvialis squatarola (Linnaeus, 1758)1European golden ploverPluvialis apricaria (Linnaeus, 1758)2Pacific golden ploverPluvialis fulva (Gmelin, JF, 1789)3American golden ploverPluvialis dominica (Müller, PLS, 1776)4Tawny-throated dotterelOreopholus ruficollis (Wagler, 1829)5Rufous-chested dotterelZonibyx modestus Lichtenstein, MHC, 18236Diademed sandpiper-ploverPhegornis mitchellii (Fraser, 1845)7Eurasian dotterelEudromias morinellus Linnaeus, 17588KilldeerCharadrius vociferus Linnaeus, 17589Common ringed ploverCharadrius hiaticula Linnaeus, 175810Semipalmated ploverCharadrius semipalmatus Bonaparte, 182511Piping ploverCharadrius melodus Ord, 182412Hooded dotterelCharadrius cucullatus (Vieillot, 1818)13Forbes's ploverCharadrius forbesi (Shelley, 1883)14Three-banded ploverCharadrius tricollaris Vieillot, 181815Black-fronted dotterelCharadrius melanops (Vieillot, 1818)16Shore ploverCharadrius novaeseelandiae (Gmelin, JF, 1789)17Little ringed ploverCharadrius dubius Scopoli, 178618Long-billed ploverCharadrius placidus Gray, JE & Gray, GR, 186319Pied ploverHoploxypterus cayanus (Latham, 1790)20Northern lapwingVanellus vanellus (Linnaeus, 1758)21Long-toed lapwingVanellus crassirostris (Hartlaub, 1855)22Blacksmith lapwingVanellus armatus (Burchell, 1822)23Spur-winged lapwingVanellus spinosus (Linnaeus, 1758)24River lapwingVanellus duvaucelii (Lesson, RP, 1826)25Yellow-wattled lapwingVanellus malabaricus (Boddaert, 1783)26Black-headed lapwingVanellus tectus (Boddaert, 1783)27White-crowned lapwingVanellus albiceps Gould, 183428Senegal lapwingVanellus lugubris (Lesson, RP, 1826)29Black-winged lapwingVanellus melanopterus (Cretzschmar, 1829)30Crowned lapwingVanellus coronatus (Boddaert, 1783)31African wattled lapwingVanellus senegallus (Linnaeus, 1766)32Spot-breasted lapwingVanellus melanocephalus (Rüppell, 1845)33Brown-chested lapwingVanellus superciliosus (Reichenow, 1886)34Grey-headed lapwingVanellus cinereus (Blyth, 1842)35Red-wattled lapwingVanellus indicus (Boddaert, 1783)36Javan lapwingVanellus macropterus (Wagler, 1827)37Banded lapwingVanellus tricolor (Vieillot, 1818)38Masked lapwingVanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783)39Sociable lapwingVanellus gregarius (Pallas, 1771)40White-tailed lapwingVanellus leucurus (Lichtenstein, MHC, 1823)41Southern lapwingVanellus chilensis (Molina, 1782)42Andean lapwingVanellus resplendens (Tschudi, 1843)43Red-kneed dotterelErythrogonys cinctus Gould, 183844Inland dotterelPeltohyas australis (Gould, 1841)45Caspian ploverAnarhynchus asiaticus Pallas, 177346Oriental ploverAnarhynchus veredus Gould, 184847Tibetan sand ploverAnarhynchus atrifons (Wagler, 1829)48Siberian sand ploverAnarhynchus mongolus Pallas, 177649Greater sand ploverAnarhynchus leschenaultii Lesson, RP, 182650Double-banded ploverAnarhynchus bicinctus Jardine & Selby, 182751WrybillAnarhynchus frontalis Quoy & Gaimard, 183252New Zealand ploverAnarhynchus obscurus Gmelin, JF, 178953Wilson's ploverAnarhynchus wilsonia Ord, 181454Collared ploverAnarhynchus collaris Vieillot, 181855Mountain ploverAnarhynchus montanus Townsend, JK, 183756Puna ploverAnarhynchus alticola (Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1902)57Two-banded ploverAnarhynchus falklandicus Latham, 179058Madagascar ploverAnarhynchus thoracicus (Richmond, 1896)59Kittlitz's ploverAnarhynchus pecuarius Temminck, 182360St. Helena ploverAnarhynchus sanctaehelenae (Harting, 1873)61Red-capped ploverAnarhynchus ruficapillus Temminck, 182162Snowy ploverAnarhynchus nivosus (Cassin, 1858)63Chestnut-banded ploverAnarhynchus pallidus Strickland, 185364Malaysian ploverAnarhynchus peronii Schlegel, 186565White-fronted ploverAnarhynchus marginatus Vieillot, 181866Javan ploverAnarhynchus javanicus Chasen, 193867Kentish ploverAnarhynchus alexandrinus Linnaeus, 175868White-faced ploverAnarhynchus dealbatus (Swinhoe, 1870)69
Description Plovers are found throughout the world, with the exception of the driest parts of the Sahara Desert (where they may occur on migration) and Antarctica, and are small to medium-sized waders ranging from long, characterised by relatively short bills. They hunt by sight, rather than by feel as longer-billed waders like snipe do. They feed mainly on insects, worms or other invertebrates, depending on the habitat, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups. Plovers engage in false brooding, a type of distraction display. Examples include pretending to change position or to sit on an imaginary nest site.
Ecology Many of the tropical and warm-temperate species are resident and individuals may spend their entire lives in a small territory on a single beach, but others, notably the Pluvialis species, and common ringed plover and semipalmated plover in Charadrius, are among the longest-distance migrant landbirds in the world. These breed on the Arctic Ocean coasts, and winter south to southernmost South America, South Africa, and New Zealand, with e.g. grey plovers breeding on the Arctic coast of Siberia migrating 14,000 km to South Africa.
In folklore
The European golden plover spends summers in Iceland, and in Icelandic folklore, the appearance of the first plover in the country means that spring has arrived. The Icelandic media always covers the first plover sighting.
See also Egyptian plover
References
External links