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Common Ringed Plover

Charadrius hiaticula

Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Plovers and Lapwings
Common Ringed Plover, photographed by Charles J. Sharp

Photo: Charles J. Sharp · Wikimedia · CC-BY-SA 4.0 (licence)

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Call and song

About the Common Ringed Plover

Stout shorebird with a stubby bill. Note orange legs, often bright on spring adults. Breeding plumage has bold black-and-white head and breast pattern; nonbreeding has subdued and browner pattern. Bill is bright orange with a dark tip when breeding, dark otherwise. In flight shows bold white wing stripe. Mellow whistled “poo-ee” call quite distinct from call of more slender and "spectacled" Little Ringed Plover. Breeds on sandy and stony substrates from beaches and lakeshores to moorland above treeline. Winters coastally, where often roosts with other small waders such as Dunlin.

Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made

Where it has been recorded

Recorded in 158 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.

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