Shorebirds: Piping Plovers

Shorebird populations can indicate if the Partnership is making progress to achieve the Coastal Habitat Objective of protecting, enhancing, and assessing the extent and health of coastal habitats and their associated wildlife.  

The health of least terns, piping plovers, and saltmarsh sparrows gives insight on the health of their habitats – are there healthy beach and marsh habitats? Do the habitats have food for shorebirds, like fish, worms, and other small creatures? These birds help tell the story of how healthy and vibrant Long Island Sound’s beaches and marshes are, and what other threats Long Island Sound’s wildlife face. 

The number of piping plovers indicates whether there is healthy and safe beach habitat for coastal birds and if there is a food supply of marine worms (polychaetes) and other small marine invertebrates around the Sound for the plovers and their chicks to eat. 

In 2024, 83 pairs of plovers successfully raised 105 fledged chicks. This is the second highest number of fledged chicks on record for Long Island Sound; in 2023 there were 107 fledged chicks.  

Since piping plover protection and monitoring efforts began in 1984, nesting success improved and more adults return to the Sound every year. State wildlife officials credit intensive on-site management, including symbolic fencing to prevent human disturbance to breeding areas, the construction of predator exclosuresaround nests to protect eggs, and dedicated monitoring of breeding pairs. Also, more regulation of activities that impact beach habitats, public education efforts, and beach-goer cooperation, have helped protect plover populations since predation and human disturbance remain threats to the breeding success at many of the locations across the Sound.  

Shorebird managers and cooperators across the Atlantic Coast are working to reach goals set by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the Piping Plover Atlantic Coast Population Recovery Plan. One objective of the Atlantic Coast recovery plan for piping plovers is to increase and maintain for five years a total of 2,000 breeding pairs of piping plovers distributed among four recovery units: Atlantic Canada, New England, New York-New Jersey, and Southern (DE-MD-VA-NC).The Long Island Sound is part of the New York-New Jersey recovery unit that has a shared goal to increase and maintain a population of 575 breeding pairs in this region for five years. Excitedly, the New York-New Jersey recovery unit’s goal was reached in 2007, and again in 2021-2024 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s most recent 5-Year Review). 

Strong productivity rates of piping plover pairs are also essential to the success of the species. A productivity rate of 1.2 chicks produced per pair indicates a healthy piping plover population in New England states. In 2024, the plovers produced 1.27 chicks per pair. Since Connecticut’s formal monitoring began in 1986, the state only observed three years where piping plover productivity dipped below 1.2 chicks per pair.  

Much of the piping plovers’ strides towards recovery  are due to annual dedicated beach management and monitoring of breeding pairs. However, predation and human disturbance remain risks to the breeding success at many of the locations across the Sound. Piping plovers are a ‘conservation-dependent species’, meaning their population’s success is often due to ongoing human efforts in the form of habitat management, predator control, etc.  Without these dedicated efforts, the population would likely decline quickly. In Connecticut, a State law (Public Act 23-155), “An Act Authorizing the Establishment of a Seabird and Shorebird Protection Program” passed in 2023 provides extra protection from human disturbance threats to vulnerable beach-nesting species, including piping plovers.