Family CHARADRIIDAE Leach, 1820
Introduction
Charadriids include a multitude of medium to small wading birds that are generally associated with water. They are cosmopolitan in distribution, absent only from Antarctica. Many are migratory, but the remainder have a sedentary nature. The family comprises nine genera represented by 66 species; 18 species in six genera are recorded for Australia and its territories (37% of the world total). Twenty ultrataxa are recognised within Australian species.
Four species are Australian endemics: the Banded Lapwing Vanellus tricolor, Red-kneed Dotterel Erythrogonys cinctus, Hooded Dotterel Thinornis rubricollis and Inland Plover Peltohyas australis. Several others, e.g. Masked Lapwing Vanellus miles, extend otherwise endemic populations to nearby island groups. Charadriids are widespread across the Australian mainland occupying most habitats except heavily wooded regions.
Many of the species have a strongly established north-south migratory pattern; others such as the Red-capped Plover, Charadrius ruficapillus, are locally nomadic, and the Double-banded Plover, C. bicinctus migrates from its breeding grounds in New Zealand to Australia during the austral winter. They are terrestrial or fluvorial feeders. Feeding is through snatching and probing for invertebrates many of which are captured after short run and chase hunts. Plovers and dotterels are gregarious and often found in large groups, although at times individual birds or pairs are encountered.
Nests are normally scrapes in open situations in sand or pastures often at sites with large concentrations of old shells. These unlined nests may contain clutches of two to four eggs. The eggs vary in shape from oval to short or long pyriform, have a greenish base of varying intensity and are heavily blotched or spotted with dark greens and browns. The young are precocial, nidifugous (i.e. leave the nest shortly after hatching) and ptilopaedic (i.e. have the entire surface of the skin covered with down).
Most Australian species show a colourful pattern of nuptial or breeding plumage and drab non-breeding plumage; bare fleshy yellow wattles in the larger lapwings are diagnostic. Lapwings also have large wing spurs on their wrists. Within the family many species show little sexual dimorphism.