America ringed plover
| America ringed plover | ||||||||||
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America ringed plover ( Charadrius semipalmatus ) |
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| Charadrius semipalmatus | ||||||||||
| Bonaparte , 1825 |
The American ringed plover ( Charadrius semipalmatus ) is a monotypical species from the plover family . It is a nearctic bird that breeds in northern North America.
The IUCN classifies the American ringed plover as not endangered ( least concern ), as its range is very large and the population seems to be stable. The worldwide population is estimated at 150,000 sexually mature individuals.
Appearance
The American ringed plover reaches a body length between 17 and 19 centimeters. The wingspan is 43 to 52 centimeters. The weight varies between 45 and 65 grams.
The American ringed plover can hardly be distinguished from the ringed plover from the outside. Like this he has a gray-brown back and a white underside of the body. The forehead is white and surrounded by a black face mask that extends to the ear patches. The top of the head and the back of the neck are gray-brown. A white neck band separates from the front of the body to the lower base of the beak. A second, black band merges into the black front breast. The beak is short. The tip of the beak is black, the rest of the beak orange-yellow.
The American ringed plover lacks the eye-catching crescent-shaped white spot behind the eyes that is characteristic of ringed plover. They only show a few lighter feathers here and many individuals have these completely absent.
voice
The voice of the American ringed plover is very different from the common ringed plover and is often the only way to tell the two species apart during field observations. The American ringed plover has a chee-wee whistle that rises upwards , and its reputation is higher and sharper than that of the ringed plover.
Distribution area and way of life
The American ringed plover breeds throughout Alaska, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, as well as southern Nunavut . Its habitat is the tundra. It is a migratory bird that migrates south in the winter months and overwinters in the southern United States, the Caribbean islands, and the coast of Central and South America. As a rule, American ringed plovers hibernate at their wintering sites in the coastal area, but they are also occasionally observed inland near rivers and lakes.
The American ringed plover prefers to eat insects and their larvae during the breeding season, while mussels play a significant role in its diet at the wintering places. American ringed plovers enter into a monogamous seasonal marriage. The clutch consists of three to four cream-colored eggs that are spotted with dark brown. The breeding season is 23 to 26 days and both parent birds are involved in the breeding. The young birds fledge after 22 to 26 days. They breed as early as the next year.
supporting documents
literature
- Richard Sale: A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife , published by Christopher Helm, London 2006, ISBN 0-7136-7039-8
Single receipts
- ↑ http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22693764 BirdLife Factsheet on America's Ringed Plover, accessed December 14, 2010
- ↑ Sale, p. 173
- ↑ Sale, p. 173
Web links
- Charadrius semipalmatus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved December 7, 2013.