Killdeer

Charadrius vociferus
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Uncommon resident in areas providing broad expanses of bare ground or short vegetation. Often seen around Lagunita (even when dry if vegetation has been mown), this species also forages on lawns, including playfields and the Oval. Probably breeds on campus.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
MF
I: 24-28 DAYS
PRECOCIAL 2
 
M
4
(3-5)
MONOG
F: 25 DAYS
MF
BREEDING: Fields, meadows, pastures, mud flats, freshwater margins, occ on coasts. Often 2 broods.
DISPLAYS: Male courtship on ground and in air with loud calling and sham nest-scraping movements. See: Shorebird Communication.
NEST: Variable. In open, with extended view, often associates with human habitation, or near little or no veg on soft substrate offering camouflaging stones, gravel, pebbles, etc., often far from water. Unlined or lined with local materials, occ well lined with grass.
EGGS: Buff, marked with blackish-brown, occ wreathed or capped. 1.4" (37 mm).
DIET: About 75% insects, remainder wide variety of invertebrates; ca. 2% weed seeds.
CONSERVATION: Winters s to C.A., Caribbean, n S.A., s w to Chile. Once locally reduced by hunting.
NOTES: Males show stronger nest-site tenacity than do females. Mates often retained in successive seasons. Incubating adults belly-soak to cool eggs in hotter part of range. Adult performs conspicuous broken-wing distraction display.
ESSAYS: Masterbuilders; Eggs and Their Evolution; Incubation: Heating Eggs; Color of Birds; Distraction Displays; Site Tenacity.
REFERENCES: Lenington and Mace, 1975; Phillips, 1972.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).