Kildeer (Charadrius vociferus), City of Rocks National Reserve, 2015.

The largest ringed plover, the kildeer, is named onomatopoeically after its call. It is well known for performing a distraction display called the 'broken wing act' to distract predators from its nest. Chicks are patterned almost identically to the adults and are precocial, moving around immediately after hatching. During breeding season look for kildeer in open dry uplands where vegetation is short or absent. In the nonbreeding season kildeer are often found in coastal wetland and beach habitats or coastal fields.