Mountain Plover
Mountain Plover: Medium-sized plover with pale brown upperparts, white underparts, and brown sides. Head has brown cap, white face, and dark eyestripe. The upperwings are brown with black edges and white bars; underwings are white. Tail is brown-black with white edges. Legs and feet are pale gray.
● Song:
"krrr"
● Foraging & Feeding:
Mountain Plover: Feeds on grasshoppers, beetles, flies, crickets, and other insects; forages on the ground.
● Breeding & nesting:
Mountain Plover: Two to four olive buff eggs marked with black are laid in a shallow ground depression, sometimes lined with dried grass. Incubation ranges from 28 to 31 days and is carried out by both parents; lays two sets of eggs, with the male incubating the first and the female the second set. Young start to fly at 33 to 34 days old.
● Similar species:
Mountain Plover: Winter adult and juvenile American Golden-Plovers have larger bills, spotted underparts, dark legs, and lack black-and-white bands on tails.
● Range & Habitat:
Mountain Plover: Breeds in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas Panhandle east to Nebraska. Spends winters from central California and southern Arizona southward into Mexico. One of the few shorebirds that lives in dry regions away from water, preferring shortgrass prairie and dry lowland areas; often found on grassy or bare dirt fields.