Little Ringed Plover

Name: Little Ringed Plover

Scientific name: Charadrius dubius

Category: Birds

Nature Stars: 60

What are nature stars?

About: A small plover, about 16cm long. Sandy brown above, white below with a black chest band and black bridle markings on the head. Nests on bare gravel around gravel pits and reservoirs. Arrives in this country in mid March and leaves again by July.

How to identify: More dainty than the Ringed Plover, with a black bill, pale creamy-brown legs and a bright yellow ring around the eye. When it flies, has only a very thin pale wingbar.

Where: A summer visitor to England and Wales.

Natural Superpowers

• Predator: 40
• Agility: 60
• Rarity: 50
• Cute factor: 40
• Traveller: 80

Fantastic fact: Little Ringed Plovers first nested in the UK in 1938, and have since spread as gravel pits have been dug, providing suitable habitat.

Photograph credit: Photo credit tbc