BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER; UPLAND PLOVER
Bartramia longicauda (Bechstein)
Other Names.—Field Plover; Prairie Whistler.
Description.—Larger than Robin; tail rather long and much pointed; upperparts rich buffy; the head and neck streaked and the back barred with black; primaries dark brown, the outermost barred with white; inner tail-feathers dark brown, the outer ones buffy, all tipped and edged with white, showing plainly in the field, and all more or less barred with black and marked with noticeable subterminal band of black; underparts whitish, the breast and sides washed with buffy and marked with black in the form of delicate bars, arrow-heads, and spots; legs and feet brownish yellow. Young birds are similar but the buffy coloration is richer. Length: 11½ inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A rather local summer resident, found only in wide, open fields, apparently rare in western Pennsylvania, save in Mercer and Crawford counties where it nests irregularly, but fairly common in southeastern Pennsylvania, where it inhabits the wide fields in the less mountainous districts from early April to mid-September.
Nest.—A depression in the ground, usually in the middle of a large, flat, upland field, not near water. Eggs: 4, buffy brown, spotted with dark or reddish brown. The eggs are surprisingly large for so small a bird, as is the case in all shore-birds.
Bartramian Sandpiper
The Upland Plover is a bird of wide pastures and grassy fields. It is difficult to approach, save at the nesting season, when it may come near so as to lead us away from its young; but its presence is announced by the high and musical whistle which has given the bird one of its popular names, “Prairie Whistler,” and which it utters from the ground, while in flight, or while perched on a fencepost, telegraph-pole, or tree.
The flight of this bird is singularly beautiful as, with wide wings beating through a comparatively short arc, it fairly quivers through the air. All its movements seem tremulous and graceful, and as it alights it lifts its wings gracefully, high above its back, and folds them carefully.
Its call-note, which is heard as the bird is disturbed, is a mellow, bubbling whistle, very musical, and with a quality of liquidity which few bird-notes possess.
The young birds run about shortly after hatching and are difficult to find. They never go to the margins of streams to hunt their food, as do other members of the family, and when autumn comes they mount to the sky and make their way to the prairies of Texas where they stop for a time while en route to their winter home in Argentina.
If this magnificent bird is given careful protection, it may survive; but unless it is guarded in South America, as well as in its nesting-grounds, there is little hope for it.