Minnesota Endangered Species Youth Art Contest

Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)

 

Photo by USFWS; Joel Trick

The piping plover is a small shorebird that nests in the Great Plains states, on the shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior, and along the Atlantic coast. Each population is listed separately under the Endangered Species Act.

 

Minnesota was home to piping plovers from both the Great Plains population and from the Great Lakes population. Unfortunately, nesting pairs from the Great Lakes population no longer nest in Minnesota on the shoreline of Lake Superior. A single population of piping plovers still exists in Lake of the Woods County (part of the Great Plains population), concentrated on Morris Point, Garden Island, Pine and Curry Island, and the Rocky Point Wildlife Management Area. However, the number of breeding pairs in this population is at a critically low level, with just 0-2 pairs in recent years.

 

Great Lakes Breeding Population

 

Atlantic Coast Breeding Population

 

Northern Great Plains Breeding Population

 

USFWS Piping Plover Fact sheet

 

Species Profile (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's National Endangered Species Website)

 

Minnesota DNR Piping Plover Profile

 

 

Links to sites with Piping Plover Photos

 

Birdperch.com

 

Piping Plover photos © Bill Schmoker

 

Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center

 

 

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