WadersBanded Lapwing Bar-tailed Godwit Black-fronted Dotterel Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) Hooded Plover Inland Dotterel Lesser Sand Plover Long-toed Stint Oriental Plover Pacific Golden Plover Pectoral Sandpiper Pied Stilt Red-necked Avocet Red-necked Stint Ruff Sanderling Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Sooty Oystercatcher
The Inland Dotterel (Peltohyas australis) is an endemic shorebird found mainly in the arid inland areas of Australian, as well as parts of the Pilbara, the lower west coast of Western Australia, Nullarbor Plains and the Eyre Peninsula.
They have orange-brown underparts, with black streaky patterning on the upperparts, a white rump, vertical black line through the eye, and distinctive “Y”-shaped breast marking (that is less obvious in the juvenile).
The are known to inhabit dry and flat open open areas that include sparsely vegetated and dry flat habitats that include claypans, stony gibber plains and gravel flats.
They forage for seeds, insects, and the shoots of shrubs, with most of their water needs derived from succulent saltbush leaves.
A monogamous species, they are opportunistic breeders, mating in response to heavy rainfall. The nest is usually a shallow depression in the ground, and can be found nesting in the hoofprint of a large animal. They ring their nest with small stones, twigs and other material scratched out of the depression. They will cover their eggs with soil, when they leave the nest, to hide and protect them.
Common name
Inland Plover, Desert Plover, Australian Plover. It’s Arrernte Name is Ntyerlpenye (a name to describe dotterels and pipits), pronouced: n-jil-pin-ya.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Aves
- Order: Charadriiformes
- Family: Charadriidae
- Genus: Peltohyas
- Species: Peltohyas australis
- Synonyms: Charadrius australis
Footnote & References
- Inland Dotterel Peltohyas australis, iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/144488-Peltohyas-australis
- Inland Dotterel, Peltohyas australis, eBird, https://ebird.org/species/inldot2?siteLanguage=en_AU
WadersBanded Lapwing Bar-tailed Godwit Black-fronted Dotterel Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) Hooded Plover Inland Dotterel Lesser Sand Plover Long-toed Stint Oriental Plover Pacific Golden Plover Pectoral Sandpiper Pied Stilt Red-necked Avocet Red-necked Stint Ruff Sanderling Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Sooty Oystercatcher
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