Killdeer

Migration continues. This week my son Eddie and I enjoyed watching a flock of more than forty Killdeer flying over a farm field near Lebanon.  Killdeer are common throughout the Susquehanna Valley all summer, but flocks of ten or more are more likely during spring and fall migration.  Some of the Killdeer in our area right now may have nested as far north as the shores of the Hudson Bay in Canada.  We live right at the northern edge of the Killdeer winter range, although relatively few stay this far north in a harsh winter.  From December to early March, you’ll have an easier time finding them to the south or closer to the Atlantic Coast.

The Killdeer is a species of plover, which is a type of shorebird.  As you would expect, most shorebirds, like sandpipers and other kinds of plovers, are much more common closer to the shore.  Small numbers of shorebirds migrate through Pennsylvania each spring and fall, but the Killdeer is one of the few that stay here to nest.  You can find them on the shore, but they also live in mowed fields, muddy edges of ponds and lakes, wetlands, and even places like construction sites or the gravel rooftops of large buildings.

When Killdeer are around, you’ll often hear them before you see them.  They are named for their call, in which they sound like they are yelling their name in a loud whistle.  Some of the earlier names for this species include Noisy Plover and Chattering Plover.  Identify a Killdeer by the two bold black lines that cross its breast (other North American plovers have one stripe or no stripes on the breast).  When they fly, watch for their long, tapered wings, with a central line of white running from the body to the tip of the wing.