Plovers · Shorebirds
Kentish plover
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Charadrius alexandrinus
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How to recognize it
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Small plover with white underparts and grey-brown back
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Thin dark bill, dark legs
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Breeding male: black forehead bar and incomplete dark breast bands
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Runs in short bursts; harsh kittup-like alarm call
About the species
On open shorelines and lake edges, Charadrius alexandrinus keeps to bare ground and short vegetation. It is a small wader with pale plumage, dark legs, and a dark bill, but its habits are easier to notice than its colors.
It runs, stops, and pecks in quick bursts while feeding, often alone or in loose groups outside the breeding season. The alarm call is a sharp “kittup,” sometimes followed by “too-eet,” and the threat note sounds like a metallic “dwee-dwee-dweedweedwee.” When disturbed near the nest, it may run off and try to draw attention away from eggs or chicks.
It breeds on salt marshes, coastal dunes, saline lakes, lagoons, and other low, moist sites away from thick cover. Its food is mostly insects and other small invertebrates, picked from wet ground or sand. Some populations stay put, while others move south for winter, often to Africa.
Where to find
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Along saline pond edges, canal banks, and small lagoon shores — where bare damp sand is exposed, it runs a few steps and stops to pick at insects.
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On flat shorelines with sparse grass and shell fragments, probing the ground at the water’s edge while avoiding thick cover.
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At the outer edge of beaches and low embankments near water — especially if a sharp kittup call carries over the open ground.
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On empty muddy patches after wind or rain, pecking quickly along the wet margin as if scanning the surface.
