2/22/22 - KILL- Killdeer
Not the banding code I would choose for myself, and the killdeer doesn't really live up to this code (unless you are one of the insects or invertebrates it scratches up from the soil). Although this bird is in the plover family, it tends more towards open fields than beaches. Two black chest bands distinguish it. The name comes from the sound that it makes. Once again, I am amazed at the nest failure rate of a lot of these birds -- one place I read put the failure rate at 53%. And yet they keep going. The killdeer is well known for behaviors that distract predators and lead them away from the nest -- one is the broken wing display, where they limp along and drag their wing to tempt predators away. Another one is pretending to incubate a false nest far away from the actual nest, and flying away to leave the predator with an empty scratch behind. Finally, sometimes they'll charge straight at a grazing animal (that doesn't always work out so well for the killdeer).
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