'' Charadrius '' is a genus of

plover Plovers ( , ) are a widely distributed group of wading birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae. Description There are about 66 species in the subfamily, most of them called "plover" or "dotterel". The closely related lapwing subf ...

s, a group of wading

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

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

Late Latin Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) 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 , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...

word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

. They are found throughout the world. Many ''Charadrius'' species are characterised by breast bands or collars. These can be (in the adult) complete bands (ringed, semipalmated, little ringed, long-billed), double or triple bands (killdeer, three-banded, Forbes', two-banded, double-banded) or partial collars (Kentish, piping, snowy, Malaysian, Javan, red-capped, puna). 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. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a near ...

. Species of the genus ''Aegialites'' (or ''Aegialitis'') are now subsumed within ''Charadrius''.

Taxonomy

The

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

''. 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 st ...

in 1603 for the

common ringed plover The common ringed plover or ringed plover (''Charadrius hiaticula'') is a small plover that breeds in Arctic Eurasia. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from ...

. The word is

and is mentioned in the

Vulgate Bible The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels us ...

. It derives from the

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

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

type species In 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 species that contains the biological type specimen ...

is the common ringed plover.

Species

The genus contains 32 species. *

New Zealand dotterel The New Zealand dotterel (''Charadrius obscurus'') is a species of shorebird found only in certain areas of New Zealand. It is also called the New Zealand plover or red-breasted dotterel, and its Māori names include , , and . The southern s ...

, red-breasted plover or New Zealand plover, ''Charadrius obscurus'' *

Common ringed plover The common ringed plover or ringed plover (''Charadrius hiaticula'') is a small plover that breeds in Arctic Eurasia. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from ...

, ''Charadrius hiaticula'' *

Semipalmated plover The semipalmated plover (''Charadrius semipalmatus'') is a small plover. ''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 ravines and ri ...

, ''Charadrius semipalmatus'' *

Long-billed plover The long-billed plover (''Charadrius placidus'') is a species of wading bird in the family Charadriidae. It can be found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepa ...

, ''Charadrius placidus'' *

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'' *

Wilson's plover Wilson's plover (''Charadrius wilsonia'') is a small bird of the family Charadriidae. It was named after the Scottish-American ornithologist Alexander Wilson by his friend George Ord in 1814. Wilson's plover is a coastal wader which breeds o ...

, ''Charadrius wilsonia'' *

Killdeer The killdeer (''Charadrius vociferus'') is a large plover found in the Americas. It was described and given its current scientific name in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. Three subspecies are described. Th ...

, ''Charadrius vociferus'' *

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

, ''Charadrius melodus'' *

Madagascar plover The Madagascar plover (''Charadrius thoracicus''), also known as the black-banded plover, is a small (37 g) monogamous shorebird in the family Charadriidae, native to western Madagascar. It inhabits shores of lagoons, coastal grasslands, and bree ...

, ''Charadrius thoracicus'' *

Kittlitz's plover Kittlitz's plover (''Charadrius pecuarius'') is a small shorebird (35-40 g) in the family Charadriidae that breeds near coastal and inland saltmarshes, sandy or muddy riverbanks or alkaline grasslands with short vegetation. It is native to much o ...

, ''Charadrius pecuarius'' *

Saint Helena plover The Saint Helena plover (''Charadrius sanctaehelenae''), locally known as the wirebird due to its thin legs, is a small wader endemic to the island of Saint Helena in the mid-Atlantic. The bird is similar in appearance to Kittlitz's plover and ...

, ''Charadrius sanctaehelenae'' *

Three-banded plover The three-banded plover, or three-banded sandplover (''Charadrius tricollaris''), is a small wader. This plover is resident and generally sedentary in much of East Africa, southern Africa and Madagascar. It occurs mainly on inland rivers, pools, ...

, ''Charadrius tricollaris'' *

Forbes's plover Forbes's plover (''Charadrius forbesi'') or Forbes's banded plover, is a small wader. This plover is resident in much of west Africa, mainly on inland rivers, pools and lakes. Its nest is a scrape lined with small pebbles in rocky uplands. After ...

, ''Charadrius forbesi'' *

Kentish plover The Kentish plover (''Charadrius alexandrinus'') is a small cosmopolitan shorebird (40-44 g) of the family Charadriidae that breeds on the shores of saline lakes, lagoons, and coasts, populating sand dunes, marshes, semi-arid desert, and tundra.S ...

, ''Charadrius alexandrinus'' *

White-faced plover The white-faced plover (''Charadrius dealbatus'') is a small shorebird of the family Charadriidae. Initially described by British ornithologist Robert Swinhoe, the bird resembles the Kentish plover (''Charadrius alexandrinus'') with which it ha ...

, ''Charadrius dealbatus'' *

Snowy plover The snowy plover (''Charadrius nivosus'') is a small wader in the plover bird family, typically about 5-7" in length. It breeds in the southern and western United States, the Caribbean, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. Long considered to be a subspecie ...

, ''Charadrius nivosus'' *

Javan plover The Javan plover (''Charadrius javanicus'') is a bird species in the family Charadriidae. It is endemic to Indonesia, where it inhabits sandy shores and intertidal mudflats. It is threatened by habitat loss but is listed as Least concern on the ...

, ''Charadrius javanicus'' * White-fronted plover, ''Charadrius marginatus'' *

Red-capped plover The red-capped plover (''Charadrius ruficapillus''), also known as the red-capped dotterel, is a small species of plover. It breeds in Australia. This species is closely related to (and sometimes considered conspecific with) the Kentish plover, ...

, ''Charadrius ruficapillus'' *

Malaysian plover The Malaysian plover (''Charadrius peronii'') is a small (c. 35–42 g) wader that nests on beaches and salt flats in Southeast Asia. Description The Malaysian plover is 15 cm (5.9 in) in length. The male can be recognized by a thin b ...

, ''Charadrius peronii'' *

Chestnut-banded plover The chestnut-banded plover (''Charadrius pallidus'') is a species of bird in the family Charadriidae. This species has a large range, being distributed across Southern Africa. However, it occupies a rather small area. Identification It grows ab ...

, ''Charadrius pallidus'' * Collared plover, ''Charadrius collaris'' * Puna plover, ''Charadrius alticola'' *

Double-banded plover The double-banded plover (''Charadrius bicinctus''), known as the banded dotterel or pohowera in New Zealand, is a species of bird in the plover family. Two subspecies are recognised: the nominate ''Charadrius bicinctus bicinctus'', which breeds ...

or banded dotterel (New Zealand), ''Charadrius bicinctus'' * Two-banded plover, ''Charadrius falklandicus'' *

Lesser sand plover The lesser sand plover (''Charadrius mongolus'') is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as lesser sand-plover, but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "lesser sand plover". The genu ...

, ''Charadrius mongolus'' *

Greater sand plover The greater sand plover (''Charadrius leschenaultii'') is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as "greater sandplover" or "greater sand-plover", but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "Gre ...

, ''Charadrius leschenaultii'' *

Caspian plover The Caspian plover (''Charadrius asiaticus'') is a wader in the plover family of birds. 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'' ...

, ''Charadrius asiaticus'' *

Oriental plover The oriental plover (''Charadrius veredus''), also known as the oriental dotterel, is a medium-sized plover closely related to the Caspian plover. It breeds in parts of Mongolia and China, migrating southwards each year to spend its non-breedi ...

, ''Charadrius veredus'' *

Eurasian dotterel The Eurasian dotterel (''Charadrius morinellus''), also known in Europe as just dotterel, is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The dotterel is a brown and black streaked bird with a broad white eye-stripe and an orange-red chest ban ...

, ''Charadrius morinellus'' *

Rufous-chested plover The rufous-chested plover (''Charadrius modestus'') or rufous-chested dotterel, is a species of bird in subfamily Charadriinae of family Charadriidae.HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife Internat ...

, ''Charadrius modestus'' *

Mountain plover The mountain plover (''Charadrius montanus'') is a medium-sized ground bird in the plover family (Charadriidae). It is misnamed, as it lives on level land. Unlike most plovers, it is usually not found near bodies of water or even on wet soil; i ...

, ''Charadrius montanus'' In December 2020, it was described in a paper that the

subspecies ''C.a.seebohmi'' may be a new species, the

Hanuman plover The Kentish plover (''Charadrius alexandrinus'') is a small cosmopolitan shorebird (40-44 g) of the family Charadriidae that breeds on the shores of saline lakes, lagoons, and coasts, populating sand dunes, marshes, semi-arid desert, and tundra.S ...

Gallery

File:Charadrius alexandrinus 2.jpg,

(''C. alexandrinus'') File:Semipalmatedplover-santafeisland.jpg,

(''C. semipalmatus'') Eggs of Three-banded Plover (Charadrius tricollaris) right in the middle of the S59 Road (11926451373).jpg,

(''C. tricollaris'') eggs on open ground File:Little ringed plover - chick.jpg,

(''C. dubius'') chick

Notes

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q736322 Bird genera