Mountain plover Charadrius montanus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 7.5 inches
• Medium-sized, long-tailed, long-winged shorebird
• Very short, fairly thick bill marks it as a plover
• Yellowish to flesh-colored legs
• Juvenile similar to adult
• Sexes similar

Adult alternate:

• Black cap
• Dark lores
• White supercilium
• Whitish forehead, foreneck, breast and belly
• Pale sandy-brown face, nape, hindneck, back and upperwings; flight feathers darker
• Buffy sides to breast
• White wingstripe at the base of the secondaries and inner primaries
• Tail brown with black subterminal band and whitish outer tail feathers

Adult basic:

• Similar to alternate-plumaged adult, but lacks black cap and lores
• Often has a broad buffy breast band

Juvenile:

• Pale brown face with a paler brown supercilium
• Whitish chin, throat, breast and belly
• Darker brown back than adult, with pale edgings giving it more of a scaled appearance

Similar species:

Basic-plumaged Pluvialis plovers (Black-bellied, American Golden and Pacific Golden) have larger bills, upperparts spangled with pale spots, spotted breasts and dark legs. Black-bellied Plover has white rump and black wingpits, visible in flight. Golden Plovers have a white wing stripe but lack the black subterminal tail band.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.