This little plover is nearly identical to Semipalmated Plover, and great care must be taken in separating the two. The two species are best differentiated by call. In flight, shows a white wing stripe. Tail is dark with white edges. Alternate Male: Upperparts are mud brown. Underparts white. Face shows a white forehead, supercilum, and collar that completely encircles the neck. A broad black band, widest at the sides of the breast, forms a black collar below the white one. Face shows a black bar across the forecrown, black mask, and black lores. Legs are orange. The bill is orange with a small black tip. May show a thin yellow eye ring, but usually does not. Alternate Female: Similar to male, but with more brownish mask and a thinner black breast band. Basic Adult: Black markings replaced by gray-brown, matching the rest of the upperparts. Bill is black, legs duller orange. Juvenile: Similar to basic adult, but with pale scaly pattern on upperparts. Breast band often incomplete. Some fine points for separating Common Ringed Plover from Semipalmated include: Common Ringed shows a more extensive white supercilium on alternate males than does Semipalmated. On Common Ringed Plover, the white of the throat meets the black lores at the gape. The white extends above the gape on Semipalmated. On Common Ringed, the white patch on the forehead is pointed at the rear, and extends to the eye. On Semipalmated, the white patch is square and does not extend to the eye. The bill of the Common Ringed is thinner at the base than the bill of Semipalmated, and has a more extensive orange base in alternate plumage. The breast band is thicker on Common Ringed. But the shape of the breast band can change with the bird's posture, so extended views with direct comparison to Semipalmated would be needed for this mark to be useful. Common Ringed Plover has no webbing between the outer two toes, while Semipalmated has substantial webbing between the outer two toes.

Length: 17 (cm) Wingspan: 36 (cm)

Habitat:

Beaches and mudflats.

Behavior:

Like other plovers, runs and stops as it feeds unlike other shorebirds that feed as they move.

Feeding:

Usually pick invertebrates from the surface of the mud.