Pam’s Perspective<\/p>\n
From the\u2026<\/p>\n
Pam Otto is the Manager of Natural Programs and<\/p>\n
Interpretive Services for the St. Charles Park District<\/p>\n
April 5, 2013<\/p>\n
“Kill-deer!”<\/p>\n
“Kill-deer! Kill-deer! Kill-deer!”<\/p>\n
Yep, there’s no doubt. The killdeer have returned.<\/p>\n
These medium-sized birds, members of the plover family, are famous for their namesake call \u2013 and for<\/p>\n
their propensity for repeating it over and over. And over.<\/p>\n
I first started hearing them around Hickory Knolls a couple of weeks ago\u2014ironically, right after coyotes<\/p>\n
killed a deer in one of the nearby athletic fields.<\/p>\n
Even though these birds look like they should be running along a beach\u2014which would make sense, since<\/p>\n
most plovers are shorebirds\u2014killdeer are an undeniable, and increasingly obvious, element of our local<\/p>\n
landscape.<\/p>\n
Male killdeer typically call from the air while circling over their territories, repeating the two notes ad<\/p>\n
nauseum. In fact, the killdeer’s scientific name, Charadrius vociferus, means noisy plover.<\/p>\n
Listen for killdeer whenever you’re in or near an open<\/p>\n
space. Whether it’s a natural area or farmland, or even a<\/p>\n
developed area with an expanse of stone, woodchips or<\/p>\n
turfgrass, chances are there’ll be a killdeer nearby. This<\/p>\n
adaptable bird has learned to take advantage of a wide<\/p>\n
range of human-created habitats, including golf courses,<\/p>\n
playgrounds and even gravelly rooftops and road<\/p>\n
shoulders.<\/p>\n
What could they possibly find appealing about roadsides?<\/p>\n
In a word, habitat. Although seemingly hazardous, such spaces offer the advantage of being shunned by<\/p>\n
most other creatures. And since killdeer are ground nesters, finding areas that are avoided by prowling<\/p>\n
predators gives the incubating parents and their resulting young a bit of an advantage.<\/p>\n
In addition, killdeer are masters of hiding in plain sight. They invest little time in nest building, instead<\/p>\n
relying on camouflage to keep their speckled eggs safe.<\/p>\n
Well, camouflage and one other quality: a remarkable acting ability.<\/p>\n
If you’ve ever approached a killdeer nest, you’ve likely witnessed this bird’s theatrics.<\/p>\n
Mom and Dad Killdeer both are adept at feigning injury, that is, scuttling about with one wing dragging,<\/p>\n
as if broken. The hobbling and thrashing is an impressive performance indeed, one that often succeeds<\/p>\n
in luring away the perceived threat.<\/p>\n
But if more drama is needed, killdeer are prepared. The birds also will sit on a pretend nest that is some<\/p>\n
distance from where the actual nest is located, then dart to another spot and plop down again. After<\/p>\n
several rounds of running and plopping, predators and people alike\u2014present company included\u2014often<\/p>\n
get confused as to where the actual nest is.<\/p>\n
If the killdeer’s success is measured, not in acting awards, but by statistics, it would appear that the bird<\/p>\n
is doing just fine. According to Kane County Audubon’s Spring Bird Count data, killdeer numbers have<\/p>\n
increased fairly steadily over that last 40 years, from a low of 13 birds spotted in 1973 to a high of 161<\/p>\n
killdeer counted in 2008.<\/p>\n
Yet life is not all sunshine and rainbows for this plucky little plover. Coyotes and feral cats take their toll,<\/p>\n
preying not only on the play-acting parents but also their precocial young, which are able to walk around<\/p>\n
and feed themselves soon after hatching. In fact, it’s estimated that killdeer may make as many as six<\/p>\n
nesting attempts before successfully fledging one chick.<\/p>\n
Keep your eyes open for killdeer in the sort of places you’d expect\u2014like meadows and mudflats\u2014as well<\/p>\n
as unexpected spots\u2014like the parking lot by the PetSmart on Randall Road, where I saw a killdeer the<\/p>\n
other day. Killdeer are brown on top and white underneath, with two characteristic black bands across<\/p>\n
their throat and chest. They also have longish legs which they use to scurry across the ground and chase<\/p>\n
after their insect prey.<\/p>\n
Keep your ears open too, both day and night, for this bird that\u2014did I mention?\u2014is not shy of<\/p>\n
announcing its presence.<\/p>\n
“Killdeer! Killdeer! Killdeer!”<\/p>\n
Killdeer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pam’s Perspective From the\u2026 Pam Otto is the Manager of Natural Programs and Interpretive Services for the St. Charles Park District April 5, 2013 “Kill-deer!” “Kill-deer! Kill-deer! Kill-deer!” Yep, there’s no doubt. The killdeer have returned. These medium-sized birds, members of the plover family, are famous for their namesake call \u2013 and for their propensity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101031,"featured_media":46779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[112,137,244],"class_list":["post-45358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-good-natured","tag-bird","tag-fly","tag-kildeer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45358"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46778,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45358\/revisions\/46778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stcnature.org\/good-natured\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}