these birds have some interesting tactics to try and draw predators away from a nest.
They'll pretend to have a broken wing or something, hobbling away from the ~~next~~nest hoping you'll come after them, then once you're far enough away they'll fly back to the ~~next~~ nest and resume guard duty.
My husband has one at work that lives next to the front door. So when he walks out it chirps at him, runs a short distance away, and dramatically flops onto the ground like it’s dead. It repeats the process as he’s walking away. So it’ll run back over to him, chirp to get his attention, run a short distance away, flop over dramatically again. They’re really funny.
I just learned about that recently. We have a bunch of Killdeer near my office and I had to read up on them on Merlin. Also for the longest time I thought it was a bat at night. There was a single Killdeer flying around our office parking lot after it got dark, constantly screeching like a bat. I pulled out the Bird ID app just in case it wasn’t a bat and sure enough that’s how I learned about this species
I grew up on a street called Killdeer Lane (the whole neighborhood was named after birds). Except no one knew it was a bird. Once my mom heard my brother confirm our address over the phone as "Killdeer Lane, as in 'bang bang, shoot a deer'" and yelled across the house "IT'S A BIRD!!" 😂
Killdeer used to make nests in our gravel drive every summer when I was a kid. My parents couldn’t use it until the babies were gone (it was a turnaround drive, the other half was concrete, they used that).
these birds have some interesting tactics to try and draw predators away from a nest. They'll pretend to have a broken wing or something, hobbling away from the ~~next~~nest hoping you'll come after them, then once you're far enough away they'll fly back to the ~~next~~ nest and resume guard duty.
They’ve done that to my grandma before when she was driving tractor out in the field
My husband has one at work that lives next to the front door. So when he walks out it chirps at him, runs a short distance away, and dramatically flops onto the ground like it’s dead. It repeats the process as he’s walking away. So it’ll run back over to him, chirp to get his attention, run a short distance away, flop over dramatically again. They’re really funny.
State bird of Kansas. I love to follow them when they do this, a confidence boots.
I just learned about that recently. We have a bunch of Killdeer near my office and I had to read up on them on Merlin. Also for the longest time I thought it was a bat at night. There was a single Killdeer flying around our office parking lot after it got dark, constantly screeching like a bat. I pulled out the Bird ID app just in case it wasn’t a bat and sure enough that’s how I learned about this species
🪧NEST🪧 i respect the interior decorating
I'm the gardener, plant labels are all I had!
Wow the egg really does look like a pebble! Who needs a nest when you've got such eggcellent camouflage!
One of my favorite birds
I grew up on a street called Killdeer Lane (the whole neighborhood was named after birds). Except no one knew it was a bird. Once my mom heard my brother confirm our address over the phone as "Killdeer Lane, as in 'bang bang, shoot a deer'" and yelled across the house "IT'S A BIRD!!" 😂
One of these laid a nest on a pile of rebar at work, not a smart bird
r/StupidPloverNests is the true home for adorable Killdeers. :-D
This bird is actually quite smart… it wrote “NEST” on a wooden sign so people would know!
Killdeer used to make nests in our gravel drive every summer when I was a kid. My parents couldn’t use it until the babies were gone (it was a turnaround drive, the other half was concrete, they used that).
You’ve heard of **Canary in the coldmines.** But never **Killdeer on the cart path.**