Golden Plover charadrius dubius
Charadrius dubius is a small waterbird of the héng-shaped order Plover family, with a body length of only 16–17 cm and a habit more similar to that of a sandpiper but with a shorter beak. Adults have predominantly brown upperparts, a white forehead, and a black front of the crown, extending to the sides and connecting with broad black eye lines. The golden yellow eye circles are the most prominent identifying features of this species. The neck has a complete and pronounced black collar. The abdomen is white. The tail feathers are shorter, mainly brown , while the outer tail feathers are nearly white. The young have plumage similar colours to adults , but without golden-yellow eye rings , and the black areas of the head and neck ring are replaced by brown.
Golden Plover in Wild Duck Lake Wetland, Yanqing, Beijing (Photo: @Eagle Dance)
Golden Plover juvenile (Image: flickr)
It breeds in most parts of China, throughout northeast, north China, south, west and central China, wintering along the southeast coast and Yunnan, and is a common migratory bird in most wetlands (sea, river, lake beach, city park waterside, near reservoirs, etc.). It has the typical characteristics of most plovers: small arthropods that move near wetlands, feed on water's edges, move quickly, and often shake their tail feathers up and down.
The nest of the golden plover is no longer described in a simple way, it is built in a minimalist style - a shallow pit arched on the sandy beach and rocky beach by the water's edge, without adding any nest material, directly in this shallow pit, well, if it can be called a "nest" location to lay eggs. About 4 eggs are laid at a time, and the egg shell is densely covered with fine gray-black spots, which are very similar to the surrounding environment, like the passers-by stone next to it.
Four eggs of a golden plover arranged in the shape of a four-leaf clover (Photo: @Red-billed Blue Magpie)
Occasionally seeing such a stone-like egg in a large rocky beach, it is easy to ignore or accidentally step on it. So if you have a golden plover running around anxiously and screaming, it means that you are almost stepping on its eggs, and it is best to be able to return to the detour.
In the lower left corner there is an egg that is almost the same color as the surrounding stones, do you see it? (Photo: @Red-billed Blue Magpie)
In order to protect the nest from being discovered by the enemy, the golden plover adopts a typical "deception" strategy: the adult bird will scream and run past you or other dangerous creatures that it considers close to the nest, looking limping as if it is injured and unable to fly, thus inducing your curiosity to approach it, and it will lead you away from the nest until it thinks it has reached a safe distance and fly away.
The Wounded Golden Plover (Photo: @Red-billed Blue Magpie)
The golden plover chicks are early hatchlings, and after hatching, they will follow the mother for a period of time to learn survival skills such as foraging. The protective color of the chick's fluff is also very good, and it is difficult to find if it is motionless.
Golden Plover Chick (Photo: @Eagle Dance)
If the chick encounters danger during the period of following the mother, such as the bird of prey flying from the sky, the bird mother will call the babies over and cover them under her body, and the fluff on the abdomen will cover the babies, revealing only a bunch of calves. Plovers do this, so there are a lot of photos that are on this subject.
Golden Plover mother protects her babies (Image: roeselienraimond.wordpress)
There are also a few inexperienced golden plover mothers, directly sat the baby under the body for several minutes, did not know what they were thinking when they got up, stepped on the baby, causing the baby to lie directly on the ground for half a day before slowing down, and then continued to jump around alive. I'm talking about the following one:
The mother of the golden plover accidentally stepped on the baby when she got up (Photo: @Eagle Dance)
(This article is co-authored: @Red-billed Blue Magpie)
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