The Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius) is a small plover.

Taxonomy:

Class: Aves

Order: Charadriiformes

Family: Charadriidae

Genus: Charadrius

Species: C. dubius

Binomial name Charadrius dubius (Scopoli, 1786)

Distribution:

They found in Europe, western Asia and also in south Africa.

Physical Characteristics:

Adults have a grey-brown back and wings, a white belly, and a white breast with one black neckband. They have a brown cap, a white forehead, a black mask around the eyes with white above and a short dark bill. The legs are flesh-coloured and the toes are all webbed. Little Ringed Plovers look superficially similar to Ringed Plovers but they are smaller and have a distinctively furtive jizz with crouching horizontal stance and longer rear-end. For confirmation, the adults have all-dark bills, duller, yellower legs and a diagnostic yellow eye ring. Juveniles also have a yellow eye ring but the lack of a pale eyebrow is a more obvious feature. In flight the Little Ringed Plover is the only small plover which doesn't have an obvious wing bar.

This species differs from the larger Ringed Plover in leg colour, the head pattern, and the lack of an obvious yellow eye-ring.

Habitat:

Their breeding habitat is open gravel areas near freshwater, including gravel pits, islands and river edges in Europe and western Asia. They nest on the ground on stones with little or no plant growth. They are migratory and winter in Africa. These birds forage for food on muddy areas, usually by sight. They eat insects and worms.

Diet:

Little Ringed Plovers feed on animal titbits found on short grass, bare soil and mud. These include insects, spiders and shrimps.

Behavior:

Their hunting style is a characteristic hesitant stop-run-peck, in a hunched position, usually higher up on the shore on drier sand or mud. They are often observed "foot-trembling", standing on one foot while rapidly vibrating the toes of the other foot on the surface. A few seconds later they run forward to peck at something. Probably, this vibration disturbs prey to betray their presence. Little Ringed Plovers prefer to forage on tidal mudflats, shallow flood pools, open short-grasslands or even bare soil. The wary Little Ringed Plovers often scatter to forage. They rarely join other waders in their mass flights or roosts. Usually territorial, they chase off other Little Ringed Plovers or small plovers from good feeding sites. Nevertheless, they may form small flocks of a dozen or so when moving and migrating. Their flight is rapid direct and low over the ground.

Little Ringed Plovers are adaptable to different feeding grounds during their migration. However, their breeding sites are affected by man-made changes that affect river flows. Nesting is disrupted by unseasonal flooding of gravel banks. On the other hand, lack of natural flooding also prevents the renewal of gravel beds, and they become overgrown and unsuitable nesting sites for these plovers. However, the birds usually recover quickly; often laying again days after losing their eggs or chicks. They also readily take over man-made sites such as gravel works, sewerage farms, beet factory settling ponds and even shingle roofs. Nevertheless, their numbers have declined and they are included in the Red List of some countries where they were previously abundant.

Breeding

Little Ringed Plovers breed in temperate to low arctic Eurasia from the Atlantic to Japan, as well as in Africa, China, northern continental Asia, the Philippines and New Guinea. Little Ringed Plovers perform courtship display flights of butterfly-like movements, with the male endlessly circling with slow and deliberate wing-beats. Although courtship is noisy, when the pair finally nest, they become secretive.

Little Ringed Plovers nest mainly on gravely river banks, lake shores or small islands, usually near fresh water. But they have also adapted to industrial sites. These include gravel works and rubbish tips! Although usually solitary, some may be semi-colonial, nesting about 9m apart. They appear to purposely nest near aggressive shorebirds whose behaviour helps to keep predators away. The nest is simply a shallow scrape, sometimes lined with plants or stones.

3-4 eggs are laid and both parents incubate (22-28 days). Besides the parents, sometimes another bird (or even two) may help out with incubation, raising the young and even defending the territory. These helpers may be male or female and are believed to be the offspring or former partners from the previous season. The chicks are highly active, running quickly on their long legs. To distract predators from their eggs or chicks, the parents use the "broken wing" feint. The young fledge in 24-29 days, but the female may depart before that to lay another clutch of eggs or to migrate.