Medium-sized shorebird with a big-headed look, and a long, thick bill. Breeding adults have a black band around the neck. Bill is black in all seasons. Often stands with a hunched horizontal posture.
Nonbreeding adults have a pale brown collar. Note the thick black bill and pale flesh-colored legs.
Superficially like Semipalmated Plover, but with a longer and thicker, almost oversized bill that is all black.
In flight tip of tail is black with white edges and wings are long and slender.
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A sturdy, medium-sized shorebird with a heavy bill for a plover. It has fairly long legs, large eyes, and a rather large head.
Larger than a Semipalmated Plover, smaller than a Killdeer.
between sparrow and robinOrnithologists recognize four subspecies, which differ in head pattern, breast band, and color of upperparts. The subspecies wilsonia is the only one that breeds in the United States; it also occurs south to Belize and into the Caribbean. The more rufous-tinted cinnamominus inhabits the southern Caribbean, while the heavy-billed crassirostris is resident in Brazil. Along Pacific shores from Mexico to Peru, beldingi is the breeding subspecies, similar to cinnamominus but with a different head pattern and broader breast band.
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