Black-bellied Plover

The Black-bellied Plover (called Grey Plover outside North America) is the largest and bulkiest of the true plovers. In breeding plumage it is strikingly patterned, with a jet-black face, throat, and belly bordered by a broad white band running from the forehead down the sides of the neck to the flanks, set off against silvery, spangled black-and-white upperparts.

Outside the breeding season it becomes far plainer, with mottled gray-brown upperparts and pale, lightly streaked underparts, making it easy to overlook among mixed shorebird flocks.

It has a nearly worldwide coastal distribution outside the breeding season, being one of the most cosmopolitan of all shorebirds.

Key field marks

• Large, heavy-bodied plover with a short, stout black bill
• Breeding: black face, throat, and belly bordered by white; spangled silver-gray upperparts
• Non-breeding: plain mottled gray-brown above, whitish below
• Black axillaries ("wingpits") visible in flight at all seasons—the single best field mark
• Prominent white wing stripe and white rump/tail in flight

Similar species

• American, Pacific, and European Golden-Plovers are slimmer, more upright, and show gray or white (not black) axillaries and no white wing stripe.
• Non-breeding birds can resemble other large gray plovers but are distinguished by the black axillary patch in flight.

Black-bellied Plovers breed on high Arctic tundra across northern North America and Eurasia. Outside the breeding season they winter on coastal mudflats, sandy beaches, and estuaries on nearly every continent, from temperate to tropical latitudes, making them one of the most widely distributed shorebirds in the world.

They undertake long migrations between Arctic breeding grounds and wintering coastlines that can span from the Americas to Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Voice

A mournful, three-note whistled call, often rendered tlee-oo-ee or pee-oo-wee, frequently heard from flocks on mudflats or in flight.

Feeding

Forages with the classic plover run-stop-peck technique, taking marine worms, small mollusks, and crustaceans from mud and sand; on tundra breeding grounds it also eats insects and some plant material.

Nesting

Nests in a shallow scrape on open tundra, often on slightly elevated, well-drained ground. Both sexes incubate, and adults defend the nest vigorously against Arctic predators such as foxes and jaegers.