The Common Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula) is the short-necked, compact little wader with a clear black breast band and orange legs, dashing in quick bursts across sandy beaches and gravel flats before stopping abruptly to pick at food. It measures 17–20 cm in length, has a wingspan of 35–41 cm and weighs 55–75 grams. The upperside is grey-brown and the underside white, with a clear, complete black breast band and a black eye mask set off by a white forehead. The legs are orange and the bill orange with a black tip, and a clear white wingbar shows in flight; this combination of orange legs and an orange, black-tipped bill separates it from the smaller Little Ringed Plover.
The call is a soft, upward-inflected, fluting "tu-i" or "klu-ip," mild and rather melodic, while the display flight features a rhythmically repeated series of the same notes. The Common Ringed Plover breeds along the entire Swedish coast as well as on mires and tundra in the mountains, with a population of 5,000–15,000 pairs; it arrives in April and can be seen through September at sandy and gravel beaches, shingle ridges and muddy bays, and is a short-distance migrant. It nests on open ground — sand, gravel or shingle — where the female lays a usual clutch of four eggs in a shallow scrape; both eggs and newly hatched chicks are heavily camouflaged and very hard to spot, and parents lure intruders away with a distraction display, feigning injury. It feeds on insects and their larvae, small crustaceans, worms and snails picked from the beach surface and the topmost layer of mud, following a characteristic pattern of running a short distance, stopping abruptly to scan, picking up food, and dashing on — sometimes stamping its feet on wet sand to draw prey to the surface.
Read about this species in Swedish →