Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)

Spanish names: Frailecillo Silbadór, Playerito, Playero Melódico, Chorlitejo Picocorto

French name: Pluvier Siffleur

The Piping Plover is a small and handsome migratory shorebird that is found primarily on sandy beaches, tidal mudflats, lakeshores and dunes. This plover is currently divided into two subspecies (inland and Atlantic coast) based on its geographic distribution, presence or absence of complete neck bands, and mitochondrial DNA.

Piping plovers are endangered, primarily due to habitat loss and degradation, predation of eggs and chicks and severe weather (storms and drought). Total population size of this species was estimated to be 5,484 birds in 1991 and 5,945 birds in 2001 (8% increase)—a very small population size for a species with such a wide distribution. Numerous studies and conservation efforts have been carried out in the breeding areas in North America, with recent efforts focusing on its wintering grounds.

• Piping Plovers nest on sandy beaches, sandflats, barrier islands, alkali lakes, riverine sand/gravel bars, reservoirs, and sand/gravel pits. Ephemeral pools, bay tidal flats and areas of open vegetation are all important brood-rearing habitats. Even though this species can use tidal mudflats, wintering habitat preferences are sandy beaches and the shores of freshwater lakes.
• In the Greater Antilles, the Piping Plover is found primarily in Cuba, where a maximum of 140 individuals have been reported. This number represents 35 times those reported for the rest of the Greater Antilles, 2.3% of global population estimates and 5.3% of the individuals that migrate using the Atlantic flyway. Distribution of this plover is restricted mainly to 19 coastal localities in northern Cuba, on sandy beaches and salt marshes where the Sabana-Camagüey archipelago is highlighted.
• Increased surveying suggests small numbers also regularly winter in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. Occasional sightings from Barbados, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, US and British Virgin Islands, Haiti, St. Kitts and Nevis, Guadalupe, and Curacao. Historic records from Jamaica and Dominican Republic but none seen on recent surveys. There is high winter site fidelity in sandy bays, lagoons, and mudflats.

Interesting Facts

• Piping Plovers, like many other ground-nesting species, perform broken-wing distraction displays. By feigning an injured wing and appearing to be easy prey, the bird leads potential predators away from a nearby nest or young.
• Piping Plovers have an interesting feeding ploy: In mud flats or water-saturated sand, they will often extend one foot slightly forward and vibrate it rapidly against the substrate. This is believed to cause small prey to move or come to the surface so that they are easier to see and capture. Such foot-trembling  or foot-tapping is commonly observed among adults and juveniles throughout the annual cycle.

Threats and Conservation Measures

• This species is classified as Near Threatened in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This listing is due to the overall population increases since 1991, a result of intensive conservation management. Main threats on the breeding grounds include inappropriate water management practices, loss of habitat from development, human disturbance, drought, predation of eggs and chicks, and storms that wash out nests.
• In the Caribbean, especially in Cuba, principal threats are related to tourism development in coastal areas, primarily around cays. Animals associated with humans in sandy beach areas also negatively affect their habitat use.
• Overall population tendency is stable despite declines that have occurred due to severe climatic variations (droughts and storms) and inappropriate water management practices. The wintering population in Cuba appears stable. Sites that have been visited for several years, such as Paredón Grande Cay, have had minimal fluctuation in the number of individuals recorded.
• Conservation measures have been directed at broad-scale conservation actions that include an International Piping Plover Recovery Team with representatives from breeding and wintering habitats in the U.S and Canada as well as individual recovery teams in different parts of the breeding range. Local efforts at breeding sites include closing portions of beaches where birds are nesting, construction of predator enclosures around nests, predator control and mitigation of water level regulation policies.
• Systematic monitoring of this species and their population tendencies must continue. The International Piping Plover Breeding and Winter Censuses will continue every 5 years. The fourth and most recent census in 2006 involved many participants throughout the species breeding and wintering range.
• Information obtained in the Caribbean until now supports the possible designation of the north coastal sector of Cuba as a site of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN). This site is also part of the proposed system of Important Bird Areas for Cuba.

Where to Find More Information?  

Haig, Susan M., and Elliott-Smith, E. (2004). Piping Plover. The Birds of North America Online. (A. Poole, Ed.) Ithaca: Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology; Retrieved from The Birds of North American Online database: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA/account/Piping_Plover/  

BirdLife International. 2006. Species Fact sheet: Piping Plover. http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3127&m=0

Blanco, P. (1997). Áreas de invierno del Frailecillo Silbador en Cuba.  El Pitirre 10 (3): 114-115.

Blanco, P. (1997). The 1996 International Piping Plover Winter Census in Cuba. In: 1996 International Piping Plover Census. By J Plisssner and S.M. Haig (eds.). Geological survey Biol. Resources Division Forest and Rangeland Ecosistems, Sciences Center, Corvallis. Oregon. 73 pp.

Blanco,  P.,  Goossen, J.,  González, H, y Sirois, J. (1993). Occurrences of the Piping Plover in Cuba. J. Field Ornithol. 64: 520-526.

Blanco, P., Peris, S. y Sánchez, B. (2001). Las aves limícolas (Charadriiformes) nidificantes de Cuba: Su distribución y reproducción.  Centro Iberoamericano de la Biodiversidad. Universidad de Alicante, España. 62 pp.

Blanco, P., Shaffer, F. y Socarrás, E. (1999). Censo invernal y anillamiento del Frailecillo Silbador Charadrius melodus en Cuba. El Pitirre 12 (2): 48-49.

Blanco, P. (2006). Distribución y áreas de importancia para las aves del orden Charadriiformes en Cuba. Tesis en opción al grado de Doctor en Ciencias Biológicas. Universidad de la Habana, Cuba.

Goossen, J.P., Blanco, P., Surois, J., González, H. (1994). Waterbird and shorebird count in the province of Matanzas, Cuba. Technical Report Series  CWS 170: 1-18.

Morrison, R.I., Y. Aubry, R.W. Beyersbergen, G.M. Donaldson, C.L. Gratto-Trvor, P.W. Hicklin, V.H. Jonson and R.K. Ross. 2001. Declines in North American shorebird populations. International Wader Study Group Bull. 94: 34-37.

National Geographic Complete Birds of North America. Edited by J. Alderfer. National Geographic Society, Washington DC.

Shaffer, F, and P. Blanco (2002). The 2001 International Snowy Plover and Piping Plover census in Cuba. Pp. 82. En: Ferland, C. L. and S. M. Haig (eds.). 2001 International Piping Plover Census. Report to U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Piping Plover Bird of the Month contributed by Antonio Rodríguez and Lourdes Mugica

Photographs by Susan Haig

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Range and Habitat Needs

• The Piping Plover breeds in the Northern Great Plains of the US and South-central Prairie Canada, the Great Lakes and on the Atlantic coast of the US and Canada from North Carolina north to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
• Inland populations winter on the Gulf Coast and Mexico while east coast populations winter primarily on the southern Atlantic coast (North Carolina to Florida), the Bahamas and Greater Antilles. Wintering distribution outside of US is not well known and a proportion of the wintering population is unaccounted for. This is due to detectability problems in diffuse habitats and also because census coverage outside the US has been poor.