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Black-bellied Plover

Status Common transient, rare in summer and winter. It is fairly common in spring, with first arrivals in early to mid-April (average 18 April, earliest 4 April) and most sightings from mid-May to early June. There are also records of small numbers of non breeders through June, but evident migrants (perhaps failed breeders) may appear in early July (average 7 July, earliest 4 July). They are abundant from late July through mid October, with small numbers through November and stragglers into January. A few have succeeded in wintering along the Eastern and Southwestern shores, notably on Cape Sable.

Description Length: 26-34 cm. All plumages: Axillars black; hind toe small. Adults in spring: Above checked black and white, giving overall gray effect at a distance; face, throat, breast, sides and belly (to about the thighs) solid black; undertail coverts white; forehead and sides of head above the eye white; uppertail coverts and tail white, finely barred with black; legs dark bluish gray to black; front toes webbed at base. Immatures: Crown, back and tail mottled brownish gray and speckled with whitish or pale yellow; below grayish white, finely streaked with brownish gray on breast and flanks. Adults in winter: Similar to immatures; back and crown dark ashy brown, finely speckled with creamy or yellowish white; belly white; flanks, breast, foreneck and face softly streaked with grayish brown.

Range In the Western Hemisphere it breeds on arctic coasts and islands and winters in coastal areas from southern British Columbia and NewJersey, rarely to Nova Scotia, south to Chile and Argentina. Also found in the Old World.

Remarks Although most common on sand beaches and tidal mudflats, it regularly makes short flights inland to recently mown hayfields. Here, small flocks attracted by earlier arrivals build up to fairly large numbers, some individuals actively feeding on insect fare while others appear to sleep. These short flights inland occur when rising tides drive the birds off the adjacent mudflats where they usually feed.

Prior to 1928, when it was legal to hunt them, gunners in some districts considered the light-breasted immatures that arrived later in the season to be of a different species and called them "silver-backs."

The Black-bellied Plover is the largest of our plovers and in life may readily be distinguished from the Lesser Golden-Plover, which approximates it in size, by its conspicuous white tail, that of the second bird being uniformly dark. Another good field mark is the Black-bellied Plover's black axillars, which show conspicuously in flight, the underwing of the Lesser Golden-Plover being light gray.

Its mellow, slightly melancholy call of three syllables carries far and is easy to recognize. The species has increased in numbers in recent decades.