Eurasian Dotterel

This plover is smaller and more compact than European golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria). It has a striking whitish supercilium in all plumages and has plain wings in flight. Adults in summer are unmistakable, with a chestnut breast bordered above with white, black belly, and warm-brown back. The legs are yellow, and the short bill is black. As with the phalaropes, the female is brighter than the male. Winter birds lack the rich underpart colouration, apart from the white breast line, and are greyer above. Young birds are similar, but have a scaly appearance to their backs. The flight call is a soft pyurr. The female's song is a simple, repetitive whistle.

It breeds in the Arctic tundra of northern Eurosiberia, from Norway to eastern Siberia, and on suitable mountain plateaus such as the Scottish highlands and the Alps. This species is migratory, wintering in a narrow belt across north Africa from Morocco eastwards to Iran. Migration stopovers are traditional, and small parties (trips) of dotterels pass through each year at these usually inland arable or grassy sites. The winter habitat is semi-desert.

The dotterel's diet is made up of insects and other small invertebrates such as snails, worms, and shellfish. These are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing used by other waders. The male dotterel generally is responsible for incubation and looks after the chicks. In most cases, the cock dotterel successfully prevents other males from getting his mate and fertilizing her eggs. He usually rears chicks that he has fathered and only 4.6% (2/44) of chicks were not the genetic offspring of the caring male, corresponding to 9.1% (2/22) broods affected.

The Eurasian dotterel was formerly described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Charadrius morinellus. The species was moved from Charadrius to the resurrected genus Eudromias when phylogenetic studies found that Charadrius was paraphyletic. The genus Eudromias had been originally introduced in 1830 by the German ornithologist Christian Ludwig Brehm. The genus name Eudromias is Ancient Greek meaning "good runner". The specific morinellus is derived from Ancient Greek moros meaning "foolish", due to the bird's trusting nature. The English name dates from 1440 when it was used to refer to the bird and also as an insult for someone considered simple or a dotard. Which use is the oldest is unclear, but the link is its tame and unsuspecting nature, which made it easy to catch; its Scottish Gaelic name is amadan-mòintich, "fool of the moors." King James VI and I went every year to Royston, Hertfordshire, to shoot dotterels. It was also easy prey for illegal poaching, which depleted its stocks. It was also prized as a delicacy; in 1534, Queen Anne Boleyn was presented with "a brace of dotterels".