Many of the migrant waders – or shorebirds as they are also known – display the most Jeckyll and Hyde characteristics of all birds, living two dramatically different lives and spending time in habitats which are as far removed from each other as can be imagined.

Separating these two lives are amazing journeys that take these small yet hardy birds halfway across the world – and back again.

The majority of South African based birders get to know migrant species during their stay in the southern hemisphere, typically during the months from October to April, so let’s find out a bit more about their ‘other’ lives by delving (again) into the typical annual life cycle of these waders.

This time it’s the –

Common Ringed Plover

Ringnekstrandkiewiet

Charadrius hiaticula tundrae

The inclusion of the subspecies name tundrae above is because this is the particular subspecies (one of three in all) that makes its way to southern Africa in the non-breeding season

Hiaticula is Latin for cleft dweller, in reference to its habit of breeding among pebbles and rocks

Identification and Distribution

Key identification features of this petite (18 cm, 50g) wader are the size (similar to the Three-banded Plover) and the broad white collar above a blackish breast band, plus the distinctive orange legs

The differences between breeding and non-breeding birds are subtle – the main feature being the orange bill that changes to black, while the black collar and face mask become lighter – these illustrations from Birds of the World show the differences nicely

Clues to their very different lives lie in the global distribution map – the orange area is where breeding occurs in the Northern Hemisphere while the blue area, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, is where they recuperate from all the rigours of the breeding season and build up strength for the next season.

The southern African distribution map shows the species presence across most of the region but absent from the Kalahari and arid interior

Life in the North

Breeding range is almost circumpolar – from north-eastern arctic-Canada, across Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia and northern Russia. Their preferred habitat is spartan – along the coast on sandy or shingle beaches, sandbanks and mudflats, estuaries. They also occur on tundra and breed up to 1200m altitude in places such as Norway.

Foraging for their favoured food, which includes small crustaceans and molluscs, is done by day and night, taking advantage of the long days and short nights of the summer months in those far northern areas, typically in small flocks of up to 50 birds.

Breeding and Migration

Their nest is simple – a shallow scrape in the ground, lined with pebbles, debris and pieces of vegetation, sometimes in covered or shaded sites. Eggs (usually 4) are laid between April and mid-July and are incubated for 21 to 27 days by both parents.

If a potential predator approaches the nest, the adult will walk away from the scrape, calling and feigning injury by flopping along the ground as if its wing is broken. Once the intruder has been lured far enough away from the nest the plover will fly off.

I have witnessed this same behaviour by Kittliz’s Plover, where I was taken to be a threat to the nest by unwittingly approaching too close to it – much to my amusement and fascination at the time the plover repeatedly performed the broken wing routine until I left it in peace.

Fledging some 4 weeks later, the fledglings are independent soon thereafter, facing the many dangers that young birds are subject to.

Once the young have fledged and can look after themselves, they start migrating south, often after the adults have already departed. And this is where it gets interesting – those that breed the furthest north are also those that migrate the furthest south. On the other hand most of those that breed further south follow the shortest migration route to the northern parts of Africa.

So the Ringed Plovers that we see in southern Africa, the tundrae sub-species, originate from the far north of Scandinavia and Russia, travelling up to 18,000 kms before finding a suitable spot in our neighbourhood.

In the process they “leapfrog” their slightly less adventurous cousins who have chosen a shorter migration route – a phenomenon known (unsurprisingly) as leapfrog migration.

As far as is known, the migration route to southern Africa crosses the Eurasian and African land masses in a broad front, possibly crossing the Sahara along the way, then heads to east and south Africa.

Migration south starts from July with the first adults arriving in southern Africa in September and the first juveniles in October, continuing to December

Life in the South

In southern Africa they seek out suitable habitat, mostly at the coast where they favour estuaries and lagoons, but also inland on mud- and sandbanks along rivers and at wetlands, favouring wide bare shorelines with little vegetation. They can often be found in the company of the more common Kittlitz’s and Three-banded Plovers.

Some time after arrival adults and juveniles have a complete moult over the next couple of months

Voëlvlei, about 30 minutes’ drive from Mossel Bay, which had no water for many years until the good rains of last year, attracted its share of Ringed Plovers this past summer along with many other waders.

Foraging is done in very shallow water or on wet mud, using the typical plover run-stop-search technique, locating prey visually and picking off the surface rather than probing as many waders with longer bills tend to do.

The plovers start departing from late February with the majority having left by end April, heading north to their breeding grounds where the cycle will start all over again…

References : Cornell Lab of Ornithology Birds of the World; Roberts VII Birds of Southern Africa; Firefinch app