Animal Encounters XXI

Finally! A spot of sunny weather has enabled me to get some shots of this elusive bird. For today's animal encounter, we've got

The Masked Plover

The masked plover is a large, common and conspicuous bird native to Australia, particularly the northern and eastern parts of the continent. It spends most of its time on the ground searching for food such as insects and worms and has several distinctive calls. Day or night, the plover can be heard making its noisy, penetrating 'kekekekek' call. Sometimes called the alarmbird (for obvious reasons), these wading birds generally gather in loose flocks, usually near waterways where food is abundant. They feed mainly on seeds, molluscs, worms and insects.

Looking for food

Come breeding season, plovers want their privacy and split into pairs to nest and breed from late spring through winter. Together they guard their nest (a depression or mound on the ground) and then their chicks, aggressively fending off potential attackers.

On the attack run...

Medium-sized birds, plovers are brown with a black crown and white underparts. They have long red legs and grow to about 35-38cm. With bright yellow wattles on their forehead and face, and a small spur on the edge of their wing, they are hard to mistake (and frightening if they attack!). Attacks are most vicious on other birds such as ravens, and also cats and dogs but once the chicks reach 60% in size after 2-3 months, the chances of this happening decrease. Strikes are much more rare on humans since they are more aware. Sometimes the bird can damage its wing in a strike but usually survives and is flightless as the wing heals. Some masked plovers never breed due to increased dangers such as people on footpaths, cars. Nearly always two birds are seen together, male and female but many can be seen in groups at times, especially during feeding on coastlines.

Getting uncomfortably close.....

Found everywhere except Western Australia, they are most often found in open grassy areas close to water. It's not uncommon to see plovers nesting in parks, playing fields or on grassed lawns.

I'm going to run away now!