This is from my old blog, a bird we found while driving in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota several years ago. The USA map below shows North Dakota in red.
It was well camouflaged and feeding in the same area as the prairie dogs. It looked like the kind of bird you would only see on the seashore, some kind of sandpiper, but I believe this is a Killdeer (a Plover).
Killdeers breed throughout North America and northwestern South America (and a few regularly visit Iceland and western Europe). They migrate only to escape snow, returning in spring before most songbirds. Killdeers are the ecologic equivalent of the lapwings of Europe. They eat beetles, grasshoppers, dragonflies and other insects.
The nest is a scrape in the ground lined with pebbles. The male makes several nests, and the female selects one of them. The eggs are four in number, grayish in color, with black marks. The parents take turns incubating. Hatching takes place in 24 days. Both parents tend the chicks, which walk and feed themselves soon after hatching.
(picture from pixabay.com)
Intruders are lured away from the nesting area by a "broken wing" distraction behavior, in which a parent bird limps or flutters along the ground, appearing to be injured.
A baby Killdeer, as shown in the next photo, like baby ducks, geese and other fowl, are what is called "precocial chicks". These chicks hatch out of the egg covered with thick down, open their eyes quickly, and are perfectly capable of walking.
(Photo is from pixabay.com)
Within minutes of hatching, they imprint on their parents and follow them tenaciously. Both parents show them food items, which they pick up and eat. The family unit stays together for several weeks. Killdeer chicks grow rapidly, requiring huge amounts of food, but as the chick imprints on its parents almost immediately, it needs to be with them in order to recognize food and to eat.
You can read more and hear its call at this link. Another website that has interesting facts with children in mind, can be found here. Yet more information came from another website. I am always thankful to those who share such interesting information online.
Thanks for looking and
have a great day!
