August

The little ringed plover is primarily a winter visitor and passage migrant in Hong Kong. However, you may keep seeing them throughout the year. In every summer, when all the winter visitor and passage migrant left our city, a small number of little ringed plover stay here and choose Hong Kong as their breeding site. As a result, we may find our little friends taking care of their young simply by visiting those scattered breeding sites during the summer.

Little ringed plover usually nests in open area with shallow pools nearby. Because of the unsheltered open nesting site, a well built insulating nest will be very conspicuous and attract predators. Therefore, the nest of little ringed plover is extremely simple. It is built by shallow scrapes in the ground, with a little nearby material to improve the camouflage.

This little ringed plover loves eating insects very much. By foraging near the shallow water and moist surface, it can find beetles, flies, ants, crickets and many other invertebrates. Obviously, while its beak is the most useful tool in feeding, its feet can be a good tool in getting food too. Sometimes the plover will stand on one foot and tremble the other foot on the surface of the shallow water to increase the availability of food.

Even though the size of the plover is quite similar to that of a sparrow, it can be separated from other plovers and sparrows by its bright yellow eye-ring and a white collar above the black frontal bar on the chest. After knowing so much about its funny raising habit and feeding behavior, it is time to locate some little ringed plovers in the wild or in our wetland park.