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  Profile

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  In flight

Cranes & Waders

Snowy Plover

Anarhynchus nivosus

• uncommon
• 42 km/h
• Near Threatened

Tiny shorebird that fakes a broken wing to lure predators from its nest. Small bird, big bluff.

Population

24,000–31,000 mature individuals

Habitat

Open, sparsely vegetated coastal sand beaches, shores of salt/soda (alkaline) lakes, coastal lagoons, brackish waterbodies and salt-exploitation sites; occasionally inland to about 3,000 m elevation

Fun fact

Snowy Plover chicks are precocial and can walk and swim within one to three hours of hatching, foraging for themselves almost immediately even though a parent continues to brood them for warmth rather than feed them directly.

Range

Pacific coast of North and South America (Washington State to Chile), U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast, Caribbean islands (east to the Virgin Islands and Margarita Island) and Bermuda, plus inland saline sites across the western U.S., Mexico, and parts of Central/South America; partial migrant (coastal populations partly resident/partly short-distance migrants, inland breeders mostly migratory)

Diet

Small invertebrates — crustaceans, marine worms, beetles (found in ~72% of coastal California breeding-season fecal samples) and flies (~44%) — foraged visually from sand or mud, sometimes at night

Size

0.16 m

Wingspan

0.38 m

Lifespan

15 years