Black Over Aqua, Orange Over Yellow - A Snowy Plover Success Story

By SFBBO Science Director Maddy Schwarz

Every year, SFBBO staff band close to 200 Western Snowy Plover chicks in an attempt to track individuals so we can assess survival and fledging rates. September is always an exciting time of year because the breeding season is over and large foraging flocks of juveniles are forming at the most popular ponds. This means staff have great opportunities to read lots of band combinations during one survey.

Back in July, we banded a brood that had hatched on a levee in Eden Landing Ecological Reserve. While banding the chicks, the male associated with the nest did a great job defending his chicks by performing a broken wing display next to us repeatedly. ​

​Because he was so close, we were able to determine that he had been previously banded as black over aqua, orange over yellow, or ka:oy. In snowy plovers, it is the male that rears the chicks, diligently keeping watch over them, brooding them, and leading them to the best places to find food. After a nest hatches, we observe the male with his brood for the next month as the chicks get bigger, lose their down, and grow flight feathers. However, since chicks cannot fly, they are the most vulnerable life stage and the majority never fledge. Unfortunately, it is very common for us to see a brood once or twice after hatching, and then never again. We were afraid that was the case for ka:oy's brood because the next week we saw ka:oy foraging in the same area with no chicks in sight, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. We saw him repeatedly over the next several weeks, always alone, never displaying any signs of the increased vigilance or stress we would expect to see if he was tending chicks. We sadly concluded that the brood likely hadn't made it and ka:oy had decided not to make another nesting attempt in 2024.

Fast forward to the end of August and Program Director, Maddy Schwarz is doing a survey at a different Eden Landing pond, when all the sudden she sees a juvenile banded as red over black, white over red, or rk:wr. Excited that this is likely a new fledge, she looks the combination up and is shocked to see that that was one of ka:oy's chicks! How could this be possible? We were certain that ka:oy's brood had failed. Had she read the combination wrong? She tried to find the bird again, but the flock had moved to a different area of the pond that was too far away to read bands. She alerted the rest of the Plover Crew to keep a keen eye out for that bird or any other birds from ka:oy's brood and wonder of all wonders, over the next week, Staff Biologists Parker Kaye and Jeremy Reinhard observed the other two birds in ka:oy's brood at other ponds in Eden Landing! Somehow, ka:oy and his chicks had managed to hide and fool us and the predators completely for a whole month! All of the birds from that nest are confirmed as fledged, which is relatively rare and therefore very impressive. His chicks are rk:wr, rk:kb (red over black, black over blue), and vo:ao (violet over orange, aqua over orange). This story highlights just how incredible these little birds are at protecting their young, following their instincts, and staying sneaky!

If you are out birding for plovers and see any of these birds, or any banded plovers at all, please take photos and send them to [email protected]. Your photos submitted to this Google Group help researchers across the species' range track their birds and write incredible stories like this one!"