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Chicks do not have the same markings as adults. They are whitish below and pale brown above with numerous black spots on the upper head, back and wings. The brown-speckled chicks reach adult size 35 days after hatching. They are still unable to fly, and retain their immature coloration until spring of the following year.
Chicks can run and capture their own food soon after hatching. Two to five days after the eggs hatch, adults may move the brood as far as half a mile to a mile and a half, then remain in that area until the chicks are fledged. One of the biggest problems for chicks is exposure to the prairie's hot afternoon sun.
Shade is scarce on the prairie, and chicks seek shade under tall vegetation or in the shadows cast by livestock watering tanks, fence posts, telephone poles and adult plovers.
Many eggs and chicks do not survive. Eggs are lost primarily to predation and hail damage, while chick mortality is primarily the result of predation. Predators include prairie falcons, ferruginous hawks, golden eagles, loggerhead shrikes, swift foxes and ground squirrels.
Mountain plovers feed primarily on insects, especially spiders, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets and ants. The type of prey consumed changes throughout the season with beetles most common from late spring to midsummer and grasshoppers and ants eaten in greater quantities in late summer. Like many species that inhabit arid environments, the mountain plover can thrive without drinking free-standing water; sufficient water is obtained from its food.
The mountain plover is generally considered an inhabitant of the arid shortgrass prairie, which is dominated by blue grama and buffalo grass with scattered clumps of cacti and forbs. More recently it has been considered a disturbed-prairie or a semi-desert species. Mountain plovers are very selective in choosing nest sites, preferring expansive, arid flats with very short grass and a high proportion of bare ground. In parts of its breeding range the mountain plover selectively nests in prairie dog towns. Prairie dogs create unique patches of habitat ideal for mountain plovers. In shortgrass prairie, prairie dog grazing promotes the short grasses like buffalo grass and grama grasses, and their digging creates areas of bare soil important for plover nesting. Prairie dog towns also attract many species of insects.
Mountain plovers will forage on slopes and ridges. Adults with young have been observed in tall vegetation and around livestock watering facilities, which probably provide an abundance of insects. Adults also use plowed fields.
The wintering habitat of the mountain plover is similar to that used in the summer. Flocks can be found on coastal prairies, alkaline flats, plowed fields and cropland.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects the mountain plover from unauthorized destruction of birds, nests and eggs. Nebraska law provides additional protection by requiring state agencies to ensure that their actions, or actions authorized or funded by them, do not jeopardize the mountain plover. However, those laws are not sufficient to guarantee a place for the mountain plover in Nebraska.
The recovery of the mountain plover will require that biologists conduct field surveys to monitor its status more accurately, to identify nesting areas, to implement the measures necessary to maintain nesting areas and to enhance suitable remaining habitat. Much of the arid shortgrass prairie in the Panhandle is marginal land for agricultural production and is used for livestock grazing. Those areas can continue to be excellent for cattle production, and, with proper management, can also provide the disturbed-prairie habitat preferred by the mountain plover.
Management options may include one or a combination of techniques compatible with the mountain plover, including grazing and controlled burning. Additionally, pesticide use should be evaluated carefully and limited to compounds that are not harmful to grassland birds. However, all of these management techniques ignore the one option that could have the most significant effect on mountain plover numbers-the re-evaluation of prairie dog control. We need to reconsider the value of prairie dogs not only to the mountain plover, but to the many species associated with prairie dog towns. If we cannot live with prairie dogs, then we should be prepared to mitigate the loss of prairie dog towns with range management practices that will provide the open, shortgrass prairie habitat preferred by the mountain plover.
The future of the mountain plover in Nebraska is uncertain, and the recovery of a species is never a simple task. We must all decide if we are willing to give something back to the land that has given us so much. If the answer is yes, the mountain plover might continue to perform its aerial mating displays over Nebraska prairies.
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