|
Piping Ploverby Dunn APPEARANCE The piping plover is an endangered migratory shore bird. The scientific name is Charadrius Melodus. It lives along the coast of the great lakes. They also live in Alberta, Saskatechwan, Manitoba, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. There were about 12 to 19 pairs in the Great Lakes area in 1983. The piping plover is a small stocky shore bird. It is 7.5cm long. Its colours are orange and white but the adults have a black breast band during mating season. HABITAT The habitat of the piping plover is along the shore lines of Canada. Its home is the beaches and flat, little grassy lands along lakes. They use stones to make their nests. The stones keep their eggs from getting washed away. FOOD The piping plover eats small insects such as grasshoppers, worms, and spiders. They seem to pick their food from the surface as it is washed up or exposed by the water. WHY ENDANGERED? The piping plover is endangered because people step on the bird and the eggs. People also ruin their habitat by damaging beach areas with dune buggies, and four wheelers. High water in the spring can wash the nests away. Farm animals can dig holes where they nest. WHAT CAN WE DO? We can put fences around the piping plovers nesting area, and we can watch where we step. We can make places where you see the nest to guide others away. Farm animals can be fenced so that they won't go on the sand where the plovers nest. BIBLIOGRAPHY Barrrt, M. Norman Book Of North American Birds Montreal: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. 1990. Piping Plover "Prairie Threatened Wildlife". Canadian Wildlife Services Alberta, 1993. Pamphlet |
|---|