During 14th annual Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC) Region-Wide count, from January 14 to February 3 2023  we are asking you to make a special effort to find and count Piping Plovers. If you see any Piping Plovers during your CWC surveys send us their locations and we will add them to our map. Keep an eye on it in the coming weeks to track our progress in surveying and finding these threatened shorebirds in the Caribbean! 

We are tracking where Piping Plovers have been seen during CWC 2023. Send us your sightings as you make them and we will update the map. This means you can track our progress in finding Piping Plovers live during the survey.  You can check back to this post to see map updates or follow them on our Caribbean Piping Plover Survey page.

Zoom in or out to view your region or the whole Caribbean. Click the icon in the top right corner to see a larger map. You can share your sightings, including a grid reference and your count of Piping Plovers at that location (if more than one was seen) with waterbird.manager@birdscaribbean.org or on the BirdsCaribbean listserv.

NOTE: If you are not within the Caribbean but have seen a Piping Plover during the CWC survey period you can still share your sightings and we will add them to the map!  And we will continue to add  all sightings of Piping Plovers in 2023 to this map, so please continue your CWC counts and send us your eBird Caribbean checklists. Remember that although we have one annual 3-week regional count period (14 Jan-3 Feb), we encourage everyone to carry out CWC counts year-round, especially during fall and spring migration. We need much more information on all the habitats that shorebirds and waterbirds use throughout the year.   Thanks!!!

Why Join the Survey?

This small, round shorebird is listed as “Near Threatened” by the IUCN with an estimated global breeding population of just 8,400 birds. They breed in restricted areas of North America but migrate south in fall with some birds spending their winter in the Caribbean.  It’s vital that we continue to learn more about the numbers and distribution of this rare shorebird in our region.

We already know about some of the main islands and areas where Piping Plovers spend the winter in the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, Cuba, and Turks and Caicos Islands.  We also know they have been spotted in smaller numbers in other countries, including Puerto Rico and its offshore islands and cays, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the US and British Virgin Islands, St Kitts, Guadeloupe, Anguilla, and Bonaire (there are just one or two records for some of these countries). But in the ‘right’ habitat there are likely more Piping Plovers to be found, both in ‘new’ locations on islands where they have been seen before and perhaps some islands where they haven’t been seen yet. We need more people out there looking for them!

Share Your Survey Experience

As well as sharing your Piping Plover locations with us we’d love for you to send us any photos or videos from your CWC surveys! These can be of the birds you see or the amazing places you visit during your surveys or of you and your survey buddies taking part in CWC! You can share your photos and videos with us on social media, tag us  @birdscaribbean in your posts and use #CWC2023 or share with waterbird.manager@birdscaribbean.org or on the BirdsCaribbean listserv.

We look forward to finding out where you spot Piping Plovers during CWC2023!

Resources to Help With Surveys

ID Resources

Piping Plovers are small, round shorebirds with ‘stubby’ black bills and orange legs. Their upper parts are pale brown, the colour of dry sand, and they are white below. We have made a handy ID guide to help you pick out Piping Plovers from some of the other small plovers that winter in the Caribbean.

Download these graphics as a pdf following these links: Plover ID guide   Guide to reading bands

They also have a unique two-note high to low pee-too call that you can listen out for. 

Piping Plovers can be quite vocal, even during the winter. They often give a mellow two-part whistle, that drops in pitch, pee-too. Sometimes they only give the first part of this call as single, repeated with several seconds between each call:  pee … pee … pee.

Don’t forget to scan the legs of any Piping Plovers you see for colour bands. Finding and reporting these bands can help us learn more about where different breeding populations spend the winter. You can find out how to report bands in our helpful guide (above). More information and different versions of this guide to reporting banded Piping Plovers are available to download on our Shorebird Resources webpage.

Guide to Piping Plover Habitats

Piping Plovers in the Caribbean are often seen in small flocks resting and feeding on sand flats. Even here, out in the open, they can be tricky to spot with their ‘dry sand’ coloured plumage blending with their surroundings. Be sure to also check any seaweed (wrack) on the beach as this is another favourite haunt of theirs. Other places Piping Plovers might be found include mudflats, mangroves, and along rocky areas of shoreline, where again they blend in beautifully, especially if they are resting. Check out and share our handy graphics, with artwork by Josmar Esteban Márquez,  to remind you where to look.

Click on each image to enlarge then right click to “save as….”  a jpeg. Use these links to download each image in higher resolution as a pdf: Sand Flats, Mangroves, Beach Wrack, Rocky Shore 

Complete Guide to Doing Surveys

You can also get a much more extensive guide to surveying Piping Plovers, their habitats, techniques for survey, and ID tips by watching our helpful “Piping Plovers in the Caribbean: Identification, Habitats, and Practical Considerations for Winter Surveys” webinar given by Piping Plover survey expert Sidney Maddock.

We want as many people as possible to join in our effort to look for Piping Plovers during the 2023 CWC regional count period. Be sure to watch Sidney Maddock’s webinar before you plan your surveys. You can also use and share these survey tips to get the most out of your Piping Plover surveys.

When you do your surveys please treat them like all your other CWC surveys. This means you should count all the bird species that you see (in addition to any Piping Plovers). Make sure you enter your data in eBird Caribbean using one of the CWC protocols on Step 2 of data entry (online).  If using the eBird app, set your portal to eBird Caribbean to access the CWC options for your checklists.