This medium-sized plover is easily recognized by its bold pattern and loud vocalizations. Upperparts are dull mud-brown, sometimes with a rufous cast. The tail is long, extending well beyond the wing tips. Underparts are white with two black bands across the breast. The forehead is white, bordered in black. Brown auriculars are bordered by white supercilium and black moustachial stripe. At close range, note the reddish-orange eye ring. In flight, the rich rufous rump and the white stripe extending down the blackish upperside of the wings are conspicuous as is the long blackish tail with white corners. Sexual dimorphism is subtle; males have shorter, thinner bills, darker auriculars with more black around the edges, and the coverts and scapulars show more rufous. Juvenile similar to adult, but with pale edges on the feathers of the upperparts and the wing coverts generally look paler than the back and scapulars. Downy young show only one black breast band.

Length: 23 (cm) Wingspan: 48 (cm)

Voice:

Call is a loud repeated KEE-DEEE (kill deer). Also makes an ascending Teeee, and a chattering teeteetee.

Habitat:

Shorelines, plowed fields, pastures.

Behavior:

Very vocal. When disturbed near nest, performs "broken wing" display and spreads tail, revealing rufous rump. Nest consists of an unlined gravel depression, often along the margins of a road or gravel parking lot.

Feeding:

Hunts for invertebrates such as earthworms, grasshoppers and beetles.