Killdeer

Charadrius vociferus is a plover of the family Charadriidae described by Linnaeus in 1758 ^[1]. It is the largest of the ringed plovers and the only one with a double band across the chest; in Peru it is a resident and is common along the coast ^[2]. The IUCN Red List classifies it as Near Threatened ^[3].

Among the ringed plovers it is the largest and the only one with two bands across the chest, the upper one being the thicker ^[2].

In Mexico, those who studied it recognised it as a shorebird about 26 cm long and about 93 g, with short legs and neck and a straight, sharp bill ^[4]. The eggs of that nest were pear-shaped, with a cream or greyish-yellow background, irregular black, grey or brown blotches, edged by a black band ^[4].

At Pantanos de Villa, in Lima, the eggs were conical-ovoid or pyriform, brownish white with dark brown spots, and the chicks, which leave the nest soon after hatching, had cryptic colours that blended them into their surroundings ^[5].

Similar species

• Charadrius semipalmatus: It can be told apart because Charadrius vociferus is the only ringed plover with a double band across the chest ^[2].
• Charadrius nivosus: It can be told apart because Charadrius vociferus is the only ringed plover with a double band across the chest ^[2].

It has a wide range in Central and North America and is common on the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and northern Chile ^[2]. In Peru it is a resident and is common along the coast, in farmland, swamps and estuaries, and only occasionally on beaches ^[2].

Until 2015, the authors of the note on the Paraíso wetland found only 2 breeding sites in Peru in the literature, Medio Mundo lagoon and Pantanos de Villa, and their record at Huacho, at about 11° S, added a third ^[2].

At Pantanos de Villa, a Lima wetland declared a Ramsar site in 1997, the nests studied in 2007-2008 were at Laguna Sur and near Laguna Génesis, in a saltgrass meadow (Distichlis spicata) on salty soil ^[5].

On the beaches of San Andrés, in Pisco, next to the Paracas National Reserve, it is classed as a resident and is associated with sandy beaches and with pebbly or rocky ones ^[6].

At Pantanos de Villa, 3 nests were followed between December 2007 and March 2008 ^[5]. They were small, fully exposed hollows in the ground, some with small stones at the base, and held up to 4 eggs ^[5]. The record of incubation could not be completed; the authors cite 24 to 28 days for it from the literature ^[5].

When someone approached the nest, the adults feigned a broken wing and screamed, and went back to normal flight once the intruder moved away; the chicks followed their parents everywhere ^[5]. Amaro and Goyoneche also report that, according to an earlier study at that wetland, the breeding season begins in late October and chicks are seen in January and February ^[5].

At Huacho, on 24 January 2015, a nest was found in the sand, 25.7 cm long and 17 cm wide, made mostly of marine invertebrate shells and small stones ^[2]. It held 4 eggs and one was hatching; the team left at once and the parents reappeared, one on the nest and the other nearby ^[2].

In Mexico City, on 9 May 2010, a female was incubating 4 eggs in a university parking space covered with volcanic gravel, in a hollow ringed by dry branches, grasses and weeds ^[4]. The same authors saw 2 juveniles on 16 June 2013 and a chick with an adult on 10 June 2018 ^[4].

The Mexico City nest lay about 3 km from the nearest water body, the greatest distance documented for the species until then ^[4]. In a review of 32 breeding records from that city, 66% of clutches were less than 300 m from water, and most (94%) were in areas with under 800 mm of annual rain ^[4].

At Pantanos de Villa its nests were in the saline-soil grass meadow, a habitat that, according to the authors, the later fires may have altered ^[5]. The nests are hard to see because they are very well camouflaged and the eggs can be mistaken for pebbles, which could explain why there are few breeding records on the Peruvian coast ^[2].

The IUCN Red List, in its 2024 assessment, classifies the species as Near Threatened ^[3].

At Pantanos de Villa, 6 fires were recorded between 2006 and 2016, 2 of them large: the one in November 2014 reached the area between Laguna Sur and Laguna Génesis, and the one in June 2016 an area next to Laguna Mayor ^[5]. The authors consider it possible that those fires negatively altered the habitat where this species nests ^[5].

In Mexico City, a person placed a bench beside the parking-lot nest to protect it, but the measure backfired: on 12 May 2010 2 eggs disappeared and on 19 May the whole clutch ^[4].

In British Columbia, Canada, a nest on a gravel bar was isolated, with a buffer zone 1.8 m across and an opaque fence, during works with heavy machinery ^[7]. The female did not leave the nest because of the machinery but did because of people, at an average distance of 3.3 m with the fence and 23.4 m without it; as it was a single nest, the author asks for caution in interpreting the results ^[7].

In bird censuses of the San Andrés beaches, in Pisco, next to the Paracas National Reserve, 9 individuals were counted in January 2023 and 4 in December 2024, 13 in all, with an average of 1.63 per census day ^[6].

It has been recorded nesting at Pantanos de Villa, in Lima, in 2007-2008 ^[5], and at Paraíso lagoon, in Huacho, in January 2015 ^[2].