General

Semipalmated Plover: Small plover with gray-brown upperparts and white underparts. Forehead and faint eyebrows are white, while face and collar are black. Bill is orange with black tip. Wings have white stripes visible in flight. Tail is brown with white edges. Legs and feet are orange. Sexes are similar. Winter adult is paler with distinct white eyebrows. Juvenile resembles winter adult but has yellow legs and feet.

Range and Habitat

Semipalmated Plover: Breeds on sandy or mossy tundra from Alaska to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Spends winters on mudflats, salt marshes, and lakeshores along coastal California and the Carolinas south.

Breeding and Nesting

Semipalmated Plover: Three to four buff to olive brown eggs marked with brown or black are laid in a ground depression. In sandy areas, nest is lined with shell fragments and pebbles; on tundra, it is lined with plants. Both parents incubate eggs for 23 to 25 days. Young fly at 23 to 31 days.

Foraging and Feeding

Semipalmated Plover: Eats insects, crustaceans, and mollusks; forages on mudflats or in shallow water, running and scanning for food in short bursts.

Vocalization

Semipalmated Plover: Call is a whistled, up-slurred "chu-weet"; song is a series of the same.

Similar Species

Semipalmated Plover: Snowy and Piping Plovers have much paler upperparts, stubbier bills, white lores, broader wing stripes, and less complete breast bands. Wilson's Plover has a thicker bill, single broad black or gray-brown breast band, and flesh-colored legs.