Have you ever heard if a bird called the “Killdeer”? It’s funny, I hadn’t until I watched the video below. I had to do some research on the fascinating little bird as just the name itself got me wondering about this lovely creature. The Killdeer is, as “Wikipedia” puts it, a medium-sized “plover”. Well that explains everything……what the heck is a plover? This little bird has an extremely long Latin name that I won’t bore you with, but the English name for it comes from its distinctive “Kill Deer” cry.
After reading a little about the Killdeer, I came to understand a bit more about them and their habitat. They forage for food primarily on mudflats and shorelines, manly eating insects that frequent these areas. The video below features a killdeer chick that has been separated from its parents. Interestingly, the Killdeer is what is called “Precocial” which means that they are able to get around without help immediately after hatching. This is a good thing, except it also means that they can get themselves in trouble at a very early age.
The hero of this video in a young man named Patty B, now Patty was on a break when he discovered the little chick stuck inside a PVC tube. He had heard the distressed bird when he walked outside and decided to investigate where the noise was coming from. Inside the tube he found the young chick upside-down and in a lot of stress. Patty very gently retrieved the bird form its prison, then went about finding the parents.
These clever little birds have a great trick to protect their young. Should the parents detect a predator near their nest, they put on one of the best acting shows in the avian world. Firstly they get far away from the nest, and feign a broken wing. They do this by holding their wing up at an unusual angle, then make as much noise as they can to attract the predator and lead it away from the endangered nest. Should the approaching pest not get the message, the Killdeer will get closer until it has the full attention of the would-be-interloper. Once it has managed to lead the pesky-predator far enough away from the now-safe-nest, it remarkably recovers from its broken wing and fly’s away. Mother Nature is truly an extraordinary thing.
Patty, once having rescued the chick, could see its worried parents in the car park and carefully set the chick down so that it could re-join the rest of its family. The little chick is soon with its mom and dad and is happy to be out-of-trouble once again. Patty says that the bird grew up to be a healthy specimen and still comes to visit him on his breaks from time-to-time. A wonderful story with an equally wonderful ending.
