Red-capped plover | |
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Male in breeding plumage | |
Female in breeding plumage | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Charadriiformes |
Family: | Charadriidae |
Genus: | Charadrius |
Species: | C. ruficapillus |
Binomial name | |
Charadrius ruficapillus Temminck, 1822 | |
The red-capped plover (Charadrius ruficapillus), also known as the red-capped dotterel, is a small species of plover.
It breeds in Australia. This species is closely related to (and sometimes considered conspecific with) the Kentish plover, Javan plover, and white-fronted plover.
Red-capped plovers have a white forehead and underparts. Their upperparts are mainly grey-brown. Adult males have a rufous or reddish-brown crown and hindneck. Adult females have a paler rufous and grey-brown crown and hindneck, with a pale loreal stripe. The upperwing of Charadrius ruficapillus shows dark brown remiges (flight feathers) and primary covert feathers with a white wingbar in flight. Its length is 14–16 cm (5.5–6.3 in) and its wingspan is 27–34 cm (10.6–13.4 in); it weighs 35–40 g (1.2–1.4 oz).
Breeding plumage shows a red-brown crown and nape with black margins. Non-breeding plumage is duller and lacks the black margins. [2]
The red-capped plover is widespread in Australia; it is a vagrant to New Zealand, although it bred there for some time in small numbers from 1950–1980. [3] The species occupies a range of coastal and inland habitats, including estuaries, bays, beaches, sandflats, and mudflats; inland saline wetlands. It is also found in inland wetland areas with bare ground.
The red-capped plover feeds mostly on small invertebrates, especially molluscs, crustaceans, and worms.
The red-capped plover is a seasonal breeder on the coasts of Australia, but breeds in response to unpredictable rains inland. [3] The plover nests on the ground close to wetlands; the nest is a small depression in the ground, with minimal or no lining. The clutch of two pale yellowish-brown eggs are speckled with black spots. The Incubation period is 30 days; incubating is mainly done by the female. Upon hatching, the young are open-eyed, mobile, and relatively mature (precocial); they flee the nest shortly after birth (nidifugous).
With a large range and no evidence of significant population decline, this species' conservation status is of Least Concern.
The black turnstone is a species of small wading bird. It is one of two species of turnstone in the genus Arenaria the ruddy turnstone being the other. It is now classified in the sandpiper family, Scolopacidae, but was formerly sometimes placed in the plover family, Charadriidae. It is native to the west coast of North America and breeds only in Alaska.
The common ringed plover or ringed plover is a small plover that breeds in Arctic Eurasia. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys. The specific hiaticula is Latin and has a similar meaning to the Greek term, coming from hiatus, "cleft" and -cola, "dweller".
The snowy plover is a small wader in the plover bird family, typically about 5-7" in length. It breeds in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, the southern and western United States and the Caribbean. Long considered to be a subspecies of the Kentish plover, it is now known to be a distinct species.
The lesser sand plover is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as lesser sand-plover, but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "lesser sand plover". The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys. The specific mongolus is Latin and refers to Mongolia which at the time of naming referred to a larger area than the present country.
The Caspian plover is a wader in the plover family of birds. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys. The specific asiaticus is Latin and means "Asian", although in binomials it usually means the type locality was India.
Wilson's plover is a small bird of the family Charadriidae.
Kittlitz's plover is a small shorebird in the family Charadriidae that breeds near coastal and inland saltmarshes, sandy or muddy riverbanks or alkaline grasslands with short vegetation. It is native to much of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Nile Delta and Madagascar. It is thought to be mainly monogamous and has monomorphic plumage.
The banded lapwing is a small to medium-sized shorebird, found in small parties or large flocks on bare ground in open grasslands, agricultural land and open savannah. It is native to Australia and in the past considered as a game bird for hunting. Population estimate is 25 000 - 1 000 000. Other names include banded, black-breasted, brown flock and plain plover.
The collared plover is a small shorebird in the plover family, Charadriidae. It lives along coasts and riverbanks of the tropical to temperate Americas, from central Mexico south to Chile and Argentina.
The yellow-legged buttonquail is a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds which resemble, but are unrelated to, the true quails. They are endemic to the Indian subcontinent, East Asia and Southeast Asia. There are two recognised subspecies; T. t. tanki is found in Pakistan, India and Nepal, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; and T. t. blanfordii is found in Myanmar, and Indochina, and eastwards to eastern China. It also migrates to and breeds in the Korea peninsular and the southernmost parts of southeast Russia.
The white-fronted plover or white-fronted sandplover is a small shorebird of the family Charadriidae that inhabits sandy beaches, dunes, mudflats and the shores of rivers and lakes in sub-saharan Africa and Madagascar. It nests in small shallow scrapes in the ground and lays clutches of 1-3 eggs. The species is monogamous and long-lived, with a life expectancy of approximately 11 years. The vast majority of pairs that mate together stay together during the following years of breeding and retain the same territory. The white-fronted plover has a similar appearance to the Kentish plover, with a white fore crown and dark bands connecting the eyes to the bill.
The oriental plover also known as the oriental dotterel, is a medium-sized Charadriine plover closely related to the Caspian plover. It breeds in parts of Mongolia and China, migrating southwards each year to spend its non-breeding season in Indonesia, New Guinea and northern Australia.
The inland dotterel is an endemic shorebird of the arid Australian interior. It forms loose flocks in sparsely vegetated gibber plain and claypans in the day where it loafs in the shade and eats shoots of shrubs. It is most often encountered at night when it forages on roads for insects. The relative remoteness of its habitat means that it is not well studied. The most detailed observations of the species were made by the South African arid-zone ornithology specialist Gordon Maclean in the 1970s. Alternate English names include Australian plover, inland plover, desert plover and prairie plover.
The Kentish plover is a small cosmopolitan shorebird of the family Charadriidae that breeds on the shores of saline lakes, lagoons, and coasts, populating sand dunes, marshes, semi-arid desert, and tundra. Both male and female birds have pale plumages with a white underside, grey/brown back, dark legs and a dark bill, however additionally the male birds also exhibit very dark incomplete breast bands, and dark markings either side of their head, therefore the Kentish plover is regarded as sexually dimorphic
The chestnut-banded plover is a species of bird in the family Charadriidae. This species has a large range, being distributed across Southern Africa. However, it occupies a rather small area.
The long-billed plover is a species of wading bird in the family Charadriidae. It can be found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The long-billed plover is a migratory bird, so it breeds and spends the winter in different parts of its range. This bird can often be spotted along the shores of rivers, streams, in wetlands, and rice fields. It forages on the shoreline primarily for aquatic insects, insect larvae, and other invertebrates. It is difficult to distinguish between male and female individuals because of their similar plumage. The breeding season starts at the end of February or early March and ends in July. A male and a female forms a monogamous pair and maintains their territory throughout the breeding season. A global population survey in 2016 assessed the long-billed plover as a species of least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
The Madagascar plover, also known as the black-banded plover, is a small monogamous shorebird in the family Charadriidae, native to western Madagascar. It inhabits shores of lagoons, coastal grasslands, and breeds in salt marshes. These plovers mainly nest in open grassland and dry mudflats surrounding alkaline lakes. The species is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN because of its low breeding success, slow reproductive rate, and weak adaptation to increasing habitat loss, leading to declining population numbers.
The Australian pratincole is a species of bird in the family Glareolidae. It breeds in Australia's interior; it winters to northern and eastern parts of the continent, Indonesia and New Guinea. It is a medium-sized nomadic shorebird which is commonly found in arid inland Australia. It breeds predominantly from south-western Queensland to northern Victoria and through central Australia to the Kimberley region in Western Australia. The Australian population is estimated at 60,000 individuals. They are a migratory species that generally move to the southern parts of their distribution range to breed during spring and summer. During winter they migrate to northern Australia, New Guinea, Java, Sulawesi and southern Borneo to over-winter. Although they are common, their occurrence is unpredictable and varies in location.
The white-faced plover is a small shorebird of the family Charadriidae. Initially described by British ornithologist Robert Swinhoe, the bird resembles the Kentish plover with which it has been much confused and sometimes considered to be a subspecies.