A whole bunch of cute...

Our little office Killdeer chicks (from this post) hatched Monday—our first successful brood! Larry spotted the babies running in and out of the rocks and up and down the grassy banks in the early afternoon. I went home to get the camera, and by the time I returned a mowing crew had descended. Drama for the chicks! Within a few hours of hatching out of the safety of their eggs, a mighty iron beast was chasing them around Seapine's north green. What an introduction to the world!

Clover blossoms tower over the tiny Seapine Killdeer Chick #1.

I flagged down the lawnmower man, and pointed out the chicks to him. He promised to keep the lawnmower crew away from their nesting grounds. These fluffy little chicks will spend a good portion of their lives watching for and escaping from predators, they didn't need to spend their first few hours scurrying away from a lawnmower. Three of the four eggs in the nest hatched, and all three chicks are still doing well. I watched them running around outside my office this afternoon. Adorable!

Seapine Killdeer Chick #2

Seapine Killdeer Chick #3

Precocial chicks are up and running within hours of hatching. These chicks are just a few hours old.

After hatching out of their shells and waiting for their feathers to dry, precocial Killdeer chicks are ready to run around. They quickly start pecking at the ground, learning to look for insects and other food. Even though they can run around, they can't fly yet and are not completely self-sufficient. They still need their parents for protection. If you get too close, the parents will call out a warning, and the chicks will freeze and hunker down. When the parents feel all is well, they give the all clear with another call. I was seated on the ground fairly far away (these photos are heavily cropped), so the parents didn't perceive me as a threat, and I didn't get to see the behavior.

...balls of fluff with legs.

Killdeer couples can have 1-3 broods a season, so since their first brood was successful, there is a chance they will nest here again after this brood. Killdeer chicks will stay with their parents for about a month, then they fledge and move on. If we're lucky, we will get another go around with these cute birds!

Go Seapine wildlife!

Killdeer nest on the north green...

We finally have a nesting pair of Killdeer at the office! Larry spotted the nest a week or so ago, and I photographed the bird and the eggs on May 20. We set up a ring of orange cones around the nest to keep the evil lawnmower man from inadvertently running over it. I checked the nest over the weekend, and Momma Killdeer is still attending her four eggs...

Momma Killdeer keeping a watchful eye on the nest.

Killdeer usually lay four eggs in a nest that is nothing more than a scrape in the dirt. They love gravelly areas, so it was no surprise our couple placed their nest near the rocky swale leading to the detention pond. Killdeer are not timid birds, and they don't shy away from human habitation. They often nest in gravel along parking lots and sidewalks. Last June I photographed a Killdeer couple that nested at the Lindner Family Tennis Center...right in the middle of the action (click here if you want to read about that encounter).

Four Killdeer eggs hidden in plain sight. 

The cryptic coloration pattern on the eggs provides camouflage. If you don't know exactly where to look, the eggs are nearly invisible. Killdeer are members of the plover family, which makes them shorebirds, but you don't have to go to the shore to see them. They love short grass, meadows, gravelly driveways and roadsides, golf courses, and even construction areas. They do like to be near water, however, and our slow-moving little stream seems to do the trick (yeah, little stream!). It's easy to distinguish Killdeer from other plovers because they have two black breast bands and a red eye ring. You would think this plumage coloration would make them easy prey for predators, but the black bands provide disruptive coloration, an effective camouflage pattern for rocky and gravelly terrain.

Two black breast bands and a red eye ring distinguish adult Killdeer from other plovers.

Killdeer move on the ground like other plovers, running in short bursts and then stopping suddenly. If you get too close to the nest, one of the nesting pair will exhibit a broken-wing distraction display. You know you're too close to the nest if you see the bird flopping around like it has a broken wing while uttering a pitiful cry. The adult is trying to lead you away from the nest. I didn't get a photo of the broken-wing distraction display because I used my long lens and was far away. I didn't want to disturb the couple because I wanted to make sure they would stick around. Click here for the tennis center post mentioned earlier, which has an example of the broken-wing behavior.

After a short mad dash, our little Killdeer pauses to look around.

I can never resist that beautiful red eye ring!

Killdeer chicks are precocial, which means when they hatch their eyes are open, and they are ready for business! Unlike robins, cardinals, sparrows, and other common songbirds that hatch blind, featherless, and unable to feed themselves (altricial), Killdeer chicks hatch with fluffy feathers, and they are up, moving, and ready to eat on their own as soon as their feathers dry. Precocial birds stay in the egg twice as long as altricial songbirds, which usually hatch in about two weeks. Our little Killdeer hatchlings won't make an appearance until they have incubated for about 25 days. Until then, the orange cones will stay on the north green...

Stay away lawnmower man (as well as raccoons, opossums, skunks, foxes, squirrels, and even mice...all predators of the ground nesting Killdeer).

A tennis-loving Killdeer couple sets up house...

Rick and Matty have been playing tennis at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, OH for the past couple of weekends and in the evenings during the week. The first weekend in June, all three of us were volunteers at the Serving it Up for Special Olympics fundraiser, which was also held there. While all this activity was going on, a Killdeer couple decided the best place to nest was right in the middle of the action...

If you look on the ground to the left of this sweet Killdeer, you'll see four speckled eggs. I had my long lens with me, so I was pretty far away, but people were walking all around this bird, not realizing four beautiful eggs were just off the sidewalk in the mulch. The Killdeer blended in so well, people didn't see the bird unless he or she started moving.

Killdeer often nest in suburban settings, but I've never seen one nest right in the center of a major tennis complex! The managers of the facility are very careful and protective of their nesting birds, and the gardeners know to stay away from the nest, so the eggs can hatch.

...a closer look at the well-camouflaged eggs. If you didn't know they were there, you would never see them. A Killdeer nest is just a scrape in the ground, or in this case, in the mulch alongside the sidewalk.

A Killdeer is a plover, and even though in Ohio suburbs they usually nest in open fields near a little gravel, they do like to be around water too...but I've never seen one hang out around a water sprinkler like this bird!

A nesting Killdeer wouldn't be a parent without a little broken-wing distraction display. While one bird sat on the nest, the other did a little flapping around looking like it was injured or had a broken wing. The ploy was a distraction to try to lure pedestrians away from the nest. 

...and it worked. The tennis players watched the "injured" bird  and stayed away from the nest. Eventually the bird flew off after another miraculous recovery, knowing the eggs were safe.

Killdeer exhibiting the False Brooding Display

As I was leaving the rookery on Thursday, I noticed movement at the edge of the parking lot near the grass and saw two Killdeer scurry across the pavement. I stopped the car and got out with my camera. I thought I’d use the car door as a blind, but then decided to get back in and drive a little closer and shoot out the window. That was a good move because I was able to get pretty close! 

The male watched me intently (not sure he’s 

the male, but he seemed like the leader of the pair).

Every now and then he would bob up and down like he 

had the hiccoughs. I had read earlier that when a Killdeer 

notices an intruder (me and my car!), it stops to look 

at the intruder and at the same time bobs up and down.

He continued to remain "on alert," eyeing me over his shoulder!

 With every click of the camera, he would rotate his head to face me.

Neither of the couple did the classic Injury-feigning Display where the bird will sort of crouch down or flop around on the ground with what seems to be a broken wing trying to lead the intruder away from the nest, so I guess I wasn’t too much of a threat, but the female did slip into the False Brooding display. At first I thought she was exhibiting some sort of courtship behavior and was encouraging the male because she was sitting on the ground with her rufous rump-patch exposed. However, after reading about the False Brooding Display, I realized that was what she was doing. The False Brooding Display is a distraction display, which like the Injury-feigning Display is designed to get the intruder’s mind off the real nest, thus protecting the eggs or nestlings from predation.

The female hunkered down on the ground like she was 

sitting on a nest and actively showed her rufous rump-patch.

Every now and then she would look over her shoulder 

at me and continue to fluff up those rufous feathers.

Eventually she calmed down and decided I was no 

threat, as she got up and walked around with the male.

The Birds of North America Online has a nice description of the distraction displays.