Out of all of the birds that are on the move during spring and fall, one that people notice first, is the killdeer. Common around areas where humans live, these birds are actually cool and have some adaptations that you’re going to want to hear about. Here are five things you may not know about killdeer

1. They build terrible nests

Some birds build truly epic nests, but the killdeer is not one of them. Killdeer nests are simple scrapes essentially a shallow depression, usually placed on or around rocks and gravel. They don’t weave sticks together or add anything to soften the ground. Although they do add pebbles and other natural items to try and disguise the eggs that are speckled to blend right in. The hope is that this camouflage is enough to prevent any predator from locating the nest. This usually works well enough, but their preferred nesting locations sometimes get them into trouble as they love building nests in parking lots and walking paths that get heavy usage by humans.

2. They use tricks to protect their young

With nests that are so exposed, Killdeer have a unique secondary strategy to try and keep their eggs and chicks safe. They employ a little deception in which the adult birds will perform a broken wing display, appearing to be in distress and making a lot of noise. THis is designed to make a predator think it can get an easy meal by catching an injured adult killdeer. As the predator starts to pursue, the bird miraculously moves further away from their nest and before the predator knows it, the killdeer makes a miraculous recovery and flies away. This display is performed by some other birds too, but the Killdeer is one of the most well known broken wing deceivers. In addition to this display, killdeer will sometimes make multiple fake nest sites to confuse predators and sometimes call from different locations away from their nest to make it harder for their real nest to be pinpointed.

3. They’re Shorebirds

When one thinks about shorebirds they usually think of a bird living along coastline, walking around sand, or perhaps wading into flooded fields. While killdeer do turn up in these places, they’re extremely common away from water in places like fields, gravel lots, and athletic fields. In spite of their preferred habitat they are in fact shorebirds and in the plover family to be specific. Other plover species can also be found away from water sometimes such as American Golden Plovers and Black-bellied Plovers that turn up each year in places like sod farms.

4. Their named for their noises

Killdeer is a weird name for a bird. However, it has nothing to do with any behaviors they exhibit and everything to do with the sounds they make. The hallmark vocalization of the killdeer sounds like they are saying killdeer. This call can be heard both while killdeer are on the ground as well as in flight and is a great way to identify them without even needing to see them.

5. Chicks are ready to go right after hatching

For many birds, it takes weeks for chicks to be big enough to actually leave the nest. For killdeer, chicks are ready to go pretty much right after hatching. Baby killdeer are precocial which means they can walk and even find food only hours after hatching from their eggs. Looking like little fuzz balls the young killdeer are led and watched over by the parents for around a month until they are able to fly and then they are officially off on their own. While the chicks are in this flightless phase, adults will use the same broken wing display as they did prior to the eggs hatching. While this happens, the chicks will freeze and hope to blend in enough to avoid detection.

Killdeer are among the birds that have adapted well to human habitation, but there is so much about them to appreciate and I hope you learned something about them that you didn’t already know. If you liked this video and want to support the channel consider signing up for our email list or membership pages, I’ll put a link to both in the description and as always, thanks for watching, we’ll see you next time on Badgerland Birding.