I have seen Kildeer on every visit to Florida, obviously a successful bird. I know that they breed here in South Florida because I have seen newly hatched chicks on previous visits. However, I would suspect that the birds that I saw today, a small group of 7, were on migration. You dont always see them on the shore, sometimes, like today they are seen many miles from the sea. I don't know why but they seem to have a preference for isolated parking lots, but they do seem to favour that kind of environment. perhaps its because the short grass and tarmac means that they can see predators before they are ambushed. Today's small group were on the ground in the flooded car park of the Sawgrass Recreation Park. One or two were very approachable although I was very careful not to stress or disturb them.
They are very similar around the face to the closely related Little Ringed Plover of Northern Europe with their very distinctive and attractive eye ring, however they are larger, taller and have much longer legs.
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