Bird
Piping Plover
Charadrius melodus
A winter visitor to Florida, found in 39 of 67 counties and 7 habitats.
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 39 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 7

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Winter
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 39 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 7
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Florida 7
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.
Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
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 (38)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Florida.
- Barren Land Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach Summer.
- 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.
- Great Lakes Dune Summer.
- 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.
- 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 Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt 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.
- 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 Florida
- Winter: does not nest here, in 39 of 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 131
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Florida. Shared habitat, not food.
- Sea OatsUniola paniculata
- Seashore SaltgrassDistichlis spicata
- Dune Marsh-elderIva imbricata
- Black NeedlerushJuncus roemerianus
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- Saltmarsh CordgrassSpartina alterniflora
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSpartina patens
- Groundsel-treeBaccharis halimifolia
- Yaupon HollyIlex vomitoria
- Sand Live OakQuercus geminata
- Live OakQuercus virginiana
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Serenoa repensSerenoa repens
- Shoreline Sea-purslaneSesuvium portulacastrum
- Tropical WaxweedCuphea aspera
- Northern Seaside SpurgeEuphorbia polygonifolia
- Muhlenbergia capillaris var. filipesMuhlenbergia capillaris var. filipes
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- Violet ButterwortPinguicula ionantha
- Starrush Whitetop SedgeRhynchospora colorata
- Seashore DropseedSporobolus virginicus
- Archidium minusArchidium minus
- Batis maritimaBatis maritima
- Sea OxeyeBorrichia frutescens
Wildlife 253
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Florida. Not sighting records.
- Lapland LongspurCalcarius lapponicus
- Le Conte's SparrowAmmodramus leconteii
- Marbled GodwitLimosa fedoa
- Northern MockingbirdMimus polyglottos
- Pine SiskinCarduelis pinus
- Sandwich TernThalasseus sandvicensis
- Short-billed DowitcherLimnodromus griseus
- Snowy PloverCharadrius nivosus
- Thayer's GullLarus thayeri
- Western SandpiperCalidris mauri
- Western Snowy PloverCharadrius nivosus nivosus
- White-throated SparrowZonotrichia albicollis
- Wilson's PloverCharadrius wilsonia
- Wilson's WarblerWilsonia pusilla
- American RobinTurdus migratorius
- American WoodcockScolopax minor
- Antillean NighthawkChordeiles gundlachii
- Blue-headed VireoVireo solitarius
- Brown NoddyAnous stolidus
- BuffleheadBucephala albeola
- Cape May WarblerDendroica tigrina
- Carolina WrenThryothorus ludovicianus
- Cave SwallowPetrochelidon fulva
- Chipping SparrowSpizella passerina
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)



































