Distribution and Dispersal in the Piping Plover

Abstract

Abstract Individually marked Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) were studied from 1981-1987 in Manitoba and Minnesota relative to dispersal patterns of age and sex classes. Unlike monogamous passerines, males returned to former breeding sites only slightly more often than females. Dispersal distances did not differ between the sexes. Across North America, 24-69% of adults exhibited breeding-site fidelity, a variability equivalent to that among species of migratory shorebirds. Distribution of Piping Plover habitat across the species range accounts for some of this variability: birds used local sites if they were available, rather than disperse long distances. Similar to most migratory shorebirds, few (1.6-23%) Piping Plover chicks returned to natal sites to breed. No difference was found in return patterns between first-year males and females, nor in distances either sex dispersed from natal sites. First-year birds were found in the vicinity of their natal sites when habitat was available. During winter, birds from the Northern Great Plains and Great Lakes were seen primarily in mixed population flocks on the Gulf of Mexico. Piping Plovers from Atlantic coast breeding areas wintered further south on the Atlantic.