Red Capped Plover Gallery

Red-capped Plover - female with wet abdomen

DH-3633
Red-capped Plover - female with wet abdomen
At a pond near Marble Bar, Pilbara, Western Australia
Charadrius ruficapillus
When returning to incubate this female had a wet abdomen used to cool the eggs. Both adults stood over the eggs shading rather than incubating as the temperature was in the 50 to 60 degree range. A widespread plover, inhabiting both coastal and inland waterways, ponds, claypans, beaches and wetlands. Closely related to the worldwide Kentish Plover. Marble Bar has the longest heatwave known when for 160 consecutive days the temperature was above 100 deg F (38.7)
Don Hadden
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