![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/KilldeerCourtingonNaturalCrooksDotCom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Killdeer I was watching ran out from a mostly empty garden bed poorly mulched with wood chips. It didn\u2019t seem particularly interested in me. What had drawn me close was an odd trilling call I had heard. I wasn\u2019t familiar with the call and was a bit surprised that it seemed to have come from the Killdeer. It sounded a bit like the \u201cAggressive Trill\u201d on AllaboutBirds<\/strong><\/a> but was softer and less stressed. A few minutes later I watched the Killdeer repeat its call.<\/p>\n The Killdeer ran forward maybe a metre (three feet) onto the grass then suddenly stopped. It dropped flat, spread its tail which showed off the rusty colours beautifully, and partially cocked its wings. It trilled.<\/p>\n Killdeer eyes are a lovely colour.<\/em><\/p>\n I turned away from it, looking back towards the garden bed, wondering if it was distracting me from eggs or chicks. (I didn\u2019t really think it was paying much attention to me though. I was still quite far away.)<\/p>\n Seeing nothing, I turned to take a photo of the Killdeer. I saw it repeat the same behaviour, though I stayed still. It ran maybe a metre, stopped, dropped, and displayed. It did this 4 more times.<\/p>\n In case there were eggs or chicks getting cold or upset, I kept walking along the path past the bird. It never flew.<\/p>\n Killdeer don’t have eyes on the back of their heads but this one can see well behind itself.<\/em><\/p>\n Once home, I went online hoping to find out more about what I had seen. In the past, I have been treated to a Killdeer\u2019s \u201cbroken wing\u201d display. That\u2019s the one where it runs, limping and dragging one wing close to the ground as if wounded. It pauses just out of pounce range, waits till you get closer, then scurries another few metres away. This was not what the bird I watched was doing.<\/p>\n It took a bit of poking around but on the website showing an electronic copy of Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds I found descriptions of what I had seen. In a section reportedly contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend, published in 1929 by the Smithsonian<\/strong><\/a>, it says:<\/p>\n \u201cOf [Killdeer] courtship display on the ground Theed Pearse (1924) writes:<\/p>\n \u201cOn two occasions that I saw one getting up he ran a short distance and then went through what looked like a sexual display. Crouching on the ground and leaning toward one side with wings lowered and then opening the tail in fan shape over the back so that the cinnamon tail coverts came conspicuously into view, at the same time uttering a trilling note.\u201d<\/p>\n There is a second similar description by Aretas Sanders (1926).<\/p>\n So my Killdeer probably wasn\u2019t the slightest bit interested in me. Instead, there was probably another Killdeer watching and perhaps even judging the interesting display.<\/p>\n I think I\u2019ll have to go back and look for chicks later this summer!<\/p>\n Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n Join In<\/strong> Why is this Killdeer displaying in such a flamboyant style? Is it protecting something or is it up to something else? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[25,168,841],"class_list":["post-1626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus","tag-birds","tag-killdeer","tag-nest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1626"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9785,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions\/9785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Killdeer Displays Flattened on the Ground<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nIn Search of Why the Killdeer Displayed<\/h2>\n
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\nHas a Killdeer ever led you up the garden path\u2014away from its nest? Or have you seen this ground-level courtship display? Please share your experiences with a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"