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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) is a medium-sized plover.
Adults have a brown back and wings, a white belly, and a white breast with two black bands. The rump is tawny orange. The face and cap are brown with a white forehead. They have an orange-red eyering. The chicks are patterned almost identically to the adults, and are precocial — able to move around right after hatching. The killdeer frequently uses a “broken wing act” to distract predators from the nest.
Their breeding habitat is open fields or lawns, often quite far from water, across most of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, with isolated populations in Costa Rica and in the Pacific coast of South America. Killdeer nest on open ground, often on gravel. They may use a slight depression in the gravel to hold the eggs, but they do not line it at all, or line it only with a few stones. Since there is no structure to stand out from its surroundings, a killdeer nest blends marvelously into the background. Furthermore, the speckled eggs themselves look like stones.
There are so many quaint birdhouses on the market that you could virtually build an old time village. There are bait shops, pharmacies, inns, florists, wineries, fire stations, gas stations, wedding chapels and the list goes on and on.
You can create a whole village or just use a couple birdhouses to complete your backyard theme.
Yesterday we spoke of planting a garden for birds. But seriously you can do just that. Some birds are attracted to color…..like hummingbirds. They like the bright colors, oranges and reds especially. And we learned that cardinals like shrubs. Robins are also very popular. As spring approaches we think more of them. So what do they like? Well Robins like earthworms best but by planting fruit trees and flowering shrubs, you’ll be inviting them in. Robins will also sing a song or two for you as well.