This is Illinois Extension’s Voice of the Wild. A new wild voice in just a moment, so find someplace quiet, take a deep breath, and enjoy.
This plover is the best known of our shorebirds. Rather than congregating in huge mixed flocks in the far reaches of a mudflat like most shorebirds, they lead a more solitary existence in habitats that put them in range of our everyday life. They are common sights in agricultural fields, country roadsides, and even lawns if they’re expansive and tightly mowed.
Its big, red-ringed eyes and chattering call seem to impart a nervous atmosphere about the bird, but They are nonetheless surprisingly brave; willing to put themselves between large animals and their eggs; if something venture too close and they’ll make a ruckus and drag a wing along the ground as if it is broken, a clever ruse to meant to distract predators away from the nest. The vast majority of the population migrates south for the winter, but they return early; about mid february; making them a fairly reliable sign of spring. This is the killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) from the family of plovers Charadriidae.
Killdeer will very occasionally join other plovers around ponds or in flooded fields; you can tell them apart from other shorebirds by their neck- killdeer are the only plover with two black neckrings. If you are still unsure, you can just wait for them to call; they are a particularly noisy bird and their repertoire of vocalizations all share a sharp recognizable tone…though they range in form and delivery. Here are a few:
Their boldest one is the vocalization they’re named for killdeer-killdeer
An abbreviated Dee-Dee-Dee
A more complex repeating series of notes usually given in flight
and a chatter or gentle trill
Altogether, here’s the killdeer again
Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for our bird sounds. And thank you for tuning in to learn a new wild voice with Illinois Extension.