Spur_Wing Plover
The New Zealand spur-winged plover population has a unique conservation trajectory among our native bird species. In just over 80 years since the first breeding record, it has gone from a fully protected native to having that protection removed in 2010. First recorded breeding near Invercargill in 1932, it subsequently spread northwards through the country, becoming established in Northland in the 1980s. A bird of open country, it is an obtrusive, noisy addition to habitats ranging from riverbeds and sea and lakeshores to agricultural pasture and urban parklands.
Vanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783)
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Charadriidae
New Zealand status: Native
Conservation status: Not Threatened
Other names: masked lapwing, masked plover, spur-wing, spurwinged plover, spur winged plover
