I want to thank Lee's Birdwatching Adventures for guest posting this blog! Lee's website is about birding from a Christian perspective and has years of articles and content from Lee and other creationists and birders. Killdeer Bird in Flight. Killdeer (photo #201608064). Support my work by downloading this photo at www.dreamstime.com. 100% of funds go back into shelter adoption photography and education programs. Tuesday, 8:20 AM - As I walked out behind the shelter, my attention couldn’t help but be drawn to a noisy bird circling over the Public Works building. One of the Killdeer that is normally darting around on the ground in our parking lot was flying through the air and shouting its name. Peterson's Field Guide describes its call as, "a loud, insistent kill-deeah, repeated." The other Plovers' calls are more pleasantly described as 'a plaintive whistle', 'a musical whistle', or 'a low chucking.' But not the Killdeer, which Peterson’s Field Guide gives a one-word description: 'noisy'.
Our Killdeer was exemplifying this boisterous description, and simultaneously living up to his Latin name, Charadrius vociferous. Vociferous is from the Latin vociferari meaning "to shout, yell." If you break it down, vox means "voice", and add it to -ferre, meaning "to carry"; therefore, vociferous describes 'voices that carry'. Vociferous doesn’t just describe volume, but also intimates annoying. Its loud cries sounded so persistent and urgent that it seemed to be a distress call to summon help for a fallen comrade. I don’t know the real purpose behind his flight and shouts, but he certainly made it known he was in the area. Stokes’ Guide to Bird Behavior may shed light on his purpose when it says, “At other times he may do small circling-flights over the territory, giving Kideah-calls of any type to advertise his presence to females and other males in the territory.” Walton County, Georgia
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