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Bird

Piping Plover

Charadrius melodus

A summer resident that nests in Virginia. Found in 19 of 133 counties and cities, across 7 habitats.

Here
Summer
Nesting
Nests here
Range
19 of 133 counties and cities
Habitats
7

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Summer
Nesting
Nests here
Range
19 of 133 counties and cities
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 Virginia 7

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 7

Coastal dunes and beaches

Core Banks dunes, June 2013
SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach; Unconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Sandy Beach; Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal WetlandDune grassland. Shown: Core Banks, Cape Lookout, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Core Banks dunes, June 2013, Jarek Tuszyński, June 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source record.

Salt and brackish marshes

Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge
SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt MarshBrackish marsh at a woodland edge. Shown: Fort Fisher, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge, ncwetlands.org, undated. CC0 1.0. Source record.

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.

SummerWinter

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond
SummerWinterBeside its main habitat.Open Water (Fresh)Regional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal pond margins, Florida and Louisiana to North Carolina; state not identified, a neighboring state.Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground

Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.

SummerWinterOnly within 60 m of water.Pasture/Hay

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

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.

SummerWinterBeside its main habitat.Open Water (Brackish/Salt)
Other habitats in its models (45)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Virginia.

  • Barren Land Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • 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.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain 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.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal 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.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-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.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Summer: nests here, in 19 of 133 counties and cities.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 98

Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.

Wildlife 227

Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Virginia. Not sighting records.

NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources