English             -               Semipalmated Plover 

Portuguese     -                Batuíra-de-bando

Latin                -                 Charadrius semipalmatus

I photographed the Semipalmated Plover on a recent trip to the island of Tinharé (930 km north of Vila Velha) We were staying in the small town of Morro de Sao Paulo and I photographed the Semipalmated Plover on a bright sunny day as we were taking a walk along 3rd beach (such an amazing place and they named their beaches 1st, 2nd 3rd, 4th etc,??) when I came across a Semipalmated Plover feeding in the sand. Quite a wary wee bird in which it won’t let you get to close to it. It’s first instinct though when you do get a bit close is to run away, instead of flying away but I managed to get reasonably close to it to take some close up photos.

* Small bird with a length of 19 cm, weighs up to 73 g and with a wingspan of about 52 cm.

* Most-frequently heard call, usually given in flight, is a clear whistled “kli-weeet”.

* The term ”semipalmated” refers to the webbing found between all 3 front toes.

* A group of plovers has many collective nouns, including a “brace”, “congregation”, “deceit”, “ponderance” and “wing” of plovers.

* The Semipalmated Plover Inhabits the east coast of Brazil . Often uses Brazilian beaches as a winter resorts and stopping points when they migrate south from North American to Patagonia.

* It inhabits shores, tide flats. Favours very open habitats on migration, including broad mudflats, sandy beaches, lake shores, pools in salt marsh; sometimes in flooded fields or even plowed fields with other shorebirds. 

* The Semipalmated Plover feeds mainly on worms, small gastropods, crustaceans and molluscs. When foraging inland, it also takes terrestrial insects such as grasshoppers, beetles and ants.   

* The Female lays 3-4 eggs which are Incubated for 25 days by both adults. Nestlings fledge 31 days after after hatching.  

* Numbers of the Semipalmated Plover were seriously depleted by unrestricted shooting in the late 19th century, but has recovered well since then and is currently widespread and common. Therefore it is classified as a species ”of least concern”.