Killdeer aren’t rare in Florida – in fact they’re year-round residents. But I still find them pretty striking with their tell-tale black stripes and neon-orange eyeliner.
There were many of them running across the roads on Saturday at the Black Point Wildlife Drive in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The welcome rain that raised the water levels at Black Point seemed to invigorate the Killdeer, who quickly pranced along the road looking for little bugs to eat.
If you’ve ever been around a group of them, you’ll know how they got their name. From AllAboutBirds.org: “Killdeer get their name from the shrill, wailing kill-deer call they give so often. Eighteenth-century naturalists also noticed how noisy Killdeer are, giving them names such as the Chattering Plover and the Noisy Plover.”
There is an easy way to tell them apart from similar looking Semipalmated Plovers or Wilson’s Plovers. Those birds have one stripe around their necks but Killdeer have stripes on their necks and chests.
