Semipalmated plover
(Charadrius semipalmatus)

Habitat
Estuarine mudflats and sandy ocean beaches.

Range
Breeds from Alaska to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and winters along the coasts from California and the Carolinas south.

Eats
Insects such as grasshoppers, mosquitoes and locusts, also crustaceans and mollusks.

Feeds
Searches for prey visually. Runs several steps, stops, stares, and then pecks or quickly snatches at prey.

Moves
Has been seen to swim short distances across small water channels during foraging while on migration. Chicks also swim short distances to follow parents to small islets on shallow lakes.

Threats
Among the few plovers whose numbers are apparently increasing, perhaps due to its versatility in food and habitat choice, its wide-spread coastal winter distribution, or its habitat expansion in the sub-Arctic.

Reproduction
The female lays three to four eggs in a depression in the ground. In sandy areas, the nest is lined with shell fragments and pebbles. On the tundra, the nest is lined with plants. Both the male and female incubate the eggs. The chicks hatch in little under a month. They fledge in three to four weeks.

Presence in Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary
Migratory

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