Piping_Plover_Management

Piping Plover Management Management of the Piping Plover Issue History and Background The piping plover (charadrius melodus) is a small bird that nests and feeds mainly along seacoasts, on isolated, sandy beaches, with little vegetation and access to mudflats for feeding. Piping plovers nest from Nova Scotia south to North Carolina, with a population in the Great Lakes region north into Alberta, Canada. They winter along the southern coast from North Carolina to Texas and into the Caribbean. Currently this bird is protected under the Endangered Species Act. The birds arrive to nest in late March along the Atlantic coast. The nests are usually located in shallow depressions near vegetation and often times are surrounded by shells. The first eggs to appear show up in late April and the nests usually have three to four eggs in them. The eggs are cream-colored with dark brown flecks located on the surface. Both the male and female incubate the eggs. The average amount of time that the eggs take to hatch is around twenty-seven days. The young birds leave the nest within an hour of hatching. It takes about 28 days for the young to fledge, but will stay with piping, plover, habitat, population, breeding, management, been, birds, beach, atlantic, sites, region, nesting, species, pairs, nests, nest, bird, recovery, human, along, productivity, predators, endangered, eggs, coast, beaches, areas, maintain, federal, critical, years, winter, wildlife, two