Best time to see: Apr to mid Sep

Key facts

Small brown and white wader with black breast and yellow eye-ring

Uncommon summer visitor to Britain, a few nesting in Essex on gravel pits, reservoirs and sewage works

Recognition

Brown upperparts, white below, black on face and breast; yellowish legs and eye-ring; 15 cm

Typical plover feeding action of run-stop-run; feigns injury to draw intruders away from its nest

Eats molluscs and insects; in flight shows no wing-bar

Lifecycle

Trilling courtship song is delivered during a slow, fluttering, bat-like display flight

Nest is a scrape in sand or shingle; 1 or 2 broods March–June; 4 pale buff eggs with dark spots

Winters in equatorial Africa