Kentish plover
| Kentish plover | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Charadriidae |
| Genus: | Charadrius |
| Species: | C. alexandrinus |
| Binomial name | |
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Charadrius alexandrinus Linnaeus, 1758 |
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The Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) is a small wader in the plover bird family. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys (kharadra, "ravine"). The specific alexandrinus is Latin and refers to Alexandria.
Three subspecies recognized.
Despite its name, this species no longer breeds in Kent, or even Great Britain. It breeds in a wide range, from southern Europe to Japan and in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, the southern United States and the Caribbean.
The North American Committee of the American Ornithologists' Union and the IOC World Bird List have voted on or before July 2011 to split the American forms into a new species snowy plover, however, no other committee has voted to change taxonomy yet. In that light, the American forms can now be found under a separate species listing snowy plover, however all forms can still be found here until further actions are taken.
The Kentish plover is 15–17 cm long. It is smaller, paler, longer-legged and thinner-billed than ringed plover or semipalmated plover. Its breast band is never complete, and usually just appears as dark lateral patches on the sides of the breast. The Kentish plover's upperparts are greyish brown and the underparts white in all plumages. The breast markings are black in summer adults, otherwise brown. Breeding males of some races have a black forehead bar and a black mask through the eye. The legs are black. In flight, the flight feathers are blackish with a strong white wing bar. The flight call is a sharp bip.
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