''Charadrius'' is a genus of

plover Plovers ( , ) are members of a widely distributed group of wader, wading birds of subfamily Charadriinae. The term "plover" applies to all the members of the subfamily, though only about half of them include it in their name. Species lis ...

s, a group of wading

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a

Late Latin Late Latin is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the 3rd to 6th centuries CE, and continuing into the 7th century in ...

word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

. They are found throughout the world. Many ''Charadrius'' species are characterised by breast bands or collars. These can be (in the adult) single complete bands (ringed, semipalmated, little ringed, long-billed),or double or triple bands (killdeer, three-banded, Forbes'). They have relatively short bills and feed mainly on insects, worms or other invertebrates, depending on habitat, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups. They hunt by sight, rather than by feel as do longer-billed waders like

snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. ''Gallinago'' snipe have a nearly ...

. Species of the genera ''Aegialites'' (or ''Aegialitis''), ''Thinornis'', and ''Elseyornis'' are now subsumed within ''Charadrius''. The former genus name ''Thinornis'' combined the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''this'' meaning "beach" or "sand" with ''ornis'' meaning "bird".

Taxonomy

The

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Charadrius'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in the tenth edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

''. The name had been used (as ''Charadrios sive Hiaticula'') by the Italian naturalist

Ulisse Aldrovandi Ulisse Aldrovandi (11 September 1522 – 4 May 1605) was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carl Linnaeus and the comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history stud ...

in 1603 for the common ringed plover. The word is

and is mentioned in the

Vulgate Bible The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Roman Church. Later, of his own initia ...

. It derives from the

χαραδριος''/kharadrios'', an unidentified plain-coloured nocturnal bird that was found in ravines and river valleys (from ''kharadra'', "ravine"). The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

is the common ringed plover. However, it once appeared that the taxonomy of “''Charadrius''” was erroneous, as for example the Kentish plover is more closely related to lapwings than it is to, say, the greater ringed plover. Hence, either all members of Charadriidae, excluding '' Pluvialis'' are grouped in a single genus, ''Charadrius'', or the genus is reduced to the Common ringed plover,

Piping plover The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, Passerellidae, sparrow-sized wader, shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band acro ...

, Semipalmated plover, and Killdeer. The latter option was chosen.

Species

The genus originally contained 33 species. However, in December 2023, The

International Ornithologists' Union The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", ...

incorporated all species under ''Thinornis'' and ''Elseyornis'' into ''Charadrius'', and some species of ''Charadrius'' are now placed in the genus '' Anarhynchus''. As a result, ''Charadrius'' now consists of only 11 species: * Killdeer ''Charadrius vociferus'' * Common ringed plover ''Charadrius hiaticula'' * Semipalmated plover ''Charadrius semipalmatus'' *

''Charadrius melodus'' *

Hooded plover The hooded plover or hooded dotterel (''Charadrius cucullatus'') is a species of bird in the family Charadriidae. It is endemic to southern Australia, where it inhabits ocean beaches and subcoastal lagoons. Taxonomy The hooded plover was Species ...

''Charadrius cucullatus'' * Forbes's plover ''Charadrius forbesi'' * Three-banded plover ''Charadrius tricollaris'' * Black-fronted dotterel ''Charadrius melanops'' *

Shore plover The shore plover (, Moriori: , ''Charadrius novaeseelandiae''), also known as the shore dotterel, is a small plover endemic to New Zealand. Once found all around the New Zealand coast, it is now restricted to a few offshore islands. It is one ...

''Charadrius novaeseelandiae'' *

Little ringed plover The little ringed plover (''Charadrius dubius'') is a small plover. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek ''kharadrios'' a bird found in river ...

''Charadrius dubius'' * Long-billed plover ''Charadrius placidus'' Another species, the Auckland Islands shore plover (''Charadrius'' (''Thinornis'') ''rossii''), known from just one specimen collected in 1840, is now generally considered to be a juvenile shore plover whose location was incorrectly recorded.

Gallery

File:Black-fronted_Dotterel_2_-_Bow_Bowing.jpg, Black-fronted Dotterel (''C. melanops'') File:Semipalmatedplover-santafeisland.jpg, Semipalmated plover (''C. semipalmatus'') Eggs of Three-banded Plover (Charadrius tricollaris) right in the middle of the S59 Road (11926451373).jpg, Three-banded plover (''C. tricollaris'') eggs on open ground File:Little ringed plover - chick.jpg,

(''C. dubius'') chick

Taxonomy

Species

Gallery

Notes

References

Further reading