When you protect piping plovers, you’re also helping preserve the delicate ecosystem of the Great Lakes’ shores and the plants and animals that call it home.

Photo: Joy Thompson

Besides being beautiful, the Great Lakes region provides what is called “critical habitat” for the Great Lakes Piping Plover. When a plant or animal is listed as federally endangered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers whether there are any geographic areas essential to that species' survival (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2017). If so, they are designated as “critical habitats”. Currently, 19 Michigan counties have designated critical habitats for piping plovers. 

Photo: Joy Thompson

Piping plovers are very particular about their nesting sites. They want beaches with sparse vegetation and gravel or cobbled stones (Michigan DNR, 2016). Areas such as Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore fit the bill!

Piping plovers’ beachfront homes also feature an endless buffet of their favorite foods. They can be spotted running up and down the beach, foraging for insects, flies, midges and other bugs. Check out the video above for an example of their foraging behavior.

Photo: Adobe

 When people think of a bird’s nest, they usually imagine  a bowl-shaped object in a tree made of twigs and grass. Plovers actually make what is called a scrape - a small depression in the sand made by the male scraping away sand and debris. With a sand-colored bird, a shallow hole on the ground, and eggs that resemble beach pebbles, it’s easy to see how vulnerable these nests can be!

Sources:

Michigan Department of Natural Resources. (2016). Featured Species Habitat Management Guide for Piping Plover. https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/publications/pdfs/HuntingWildlifeHabitat/Featured_Species/MDNR_feat_spp_hab_guideance_-_piping_plover.pdf

U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service. (2017). Critical habit: What is it? https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/critical-habitat-fact-sheet.pdf