Bird
Piping Plover
Charadrius melodus
A winter visitor to Alabama, found in 2 of 67 counties and 6 habitats.
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 2 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 6

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 2 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 6
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Alabama 6
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.
Other habitats in its models (49)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Alabama.
- Barren Land Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Sandy Beach Summer.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer and winter.
- Louisiana Beach Summer and winter.
- Southeast Florida Beach Summer and winter.
- Great Lakes Dune Summer.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer and winter.
- Southwest Florida Beach Summer and winter.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer and winter.
- North American Warm Desert Playa Summer.
- Inter-Mountain Basins Playa Summer.
- Great Lakes Alvar Summer.
- Central Mixedgrass Prairie Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Inter-Mountain Basins Semi-Desert Grassland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Northwestern Great Plains Mixedgrass Prairie Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Western Great Plains Sand Prairie Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Western Great Plains Shortgrass Prairie Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Summer, beside its main habitat.
- South Texas Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Acadian Salt Marsh and Estuary Systems Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer and winter.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Great Lakes Coastal Marsh Systems Summer.
- Great Lakes Freshwater Estuary and Delta Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Northern Great Lakes Coastal Marsh Summer.
- Inter-Mountain Basins Interdunal Swale Wetland Summer.
- Great Plains Prairie Pothole Summer.
- Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
- Western Great Plains Open Freshwater Depression Wetland Summer.
- Western Great Plains Closed Depression Wetland Summer.
- Western Great Plains Saline Depression Wetland Summer.
- Inter-Mountain Basins Alkaline Closed Depression Summer.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer and winter.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Summer.
- Northwestern Great Plains Floodplain Summer.
Seasons in Alabama
- Winter: does not nest here, in 2 of 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 66
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Alabama. Shared habitat, not food.
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSporobolus pumilus
- Groundsel-treeBaccharis halimifolia
- Fuirena scirpoideaFuirena scirpoidea
- Largeleaf PennywortHydrocotyle bonariensis
- Yaupon HollyIlex vomitoria
- Dune Marsh-elderIva imbricata
- Panicum amarum var. amarulumPanicum amarum var. amarulum
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- KnotgrassPaspalum distichum
- Tall JointweedPolygonella gracilis
- Sand Live OakQuercus geminata
- Live OakQuercus virginiana
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Serenoa repensSerenoa repens
- Seashore DropseedSporobolus virginicus
- Virginia Chain-fernAnchistea virginica
- Bushy BluestemAndropogon glomeratus
- American BlueheartsBuchnera americana
- Shoreline SedgeCarex hyalinolepis
- ButtonbushCephalanthus occidentalis
- Ceratiola ericoidesCeratiola ericoides
- Woody GoldenrodChrysoma pauciflosculosa
- Godfrey's Golden AsterChrysopsis godfreyi
Wildlife 221
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Alabama. Not sighting records.
- American AvocetRecurvirostra americana
- American BitternBotaurus lentiginosus
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- American PipitAnthus rubescens
- American WigeonAnas americana
- Bank SwallowRiparia riparia
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- Boat-tailed GrackleQuiscalus major
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Least TernSternula antillarum
- Mottled DuckAnas fulvigula
- Northern PintailAnas acuta
- Northern Rough-winged SwallowStelgidopteryx serripennis
- Ring-billed GullLarus delawarensis
- Stilt SandpiperCalidris himantopus
- Tree SwallowTachycineta bicolor
- White-faced IbisPlegadis chihi
- Yellow-crowned Night-heronNyctanassa violacea
- American CootFulica americana
- American White PelicanPelecanus erythrorhynchos
- Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalus
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Piping Plover
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)






































