Hooded Plover

The hooded plover or hooded dotterel (Thinornis cucullatus) is a species of bird in the family Charadriidae. It is endemic to southern Australia, where it inhabits ocean beaches and subcoastal lagoons. == Taxonomy == The hooded plover was formally described in 1818 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the current binomial name Charadrius cucullatus. The binomial name Charadrius cucullatus was at one time treated as a junior synonym of Charadrius rubricollis Gmelin, 1789, but in 1998 the American ornithologist Storrs L. Olson designated a lectotype for C. rubricollis and made it a junior synonym of Tringa lobata Linnaeus, 1758, now the red-necked phalarope Phalaropus lobatus. In the early 2000s the hooded plover was moved from the original genus Charadrius to the genus Thinornis, along with the shore plover. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2015 found Thinornis was sister to the genus Charadrius. This was confirmed by another study published in 2022. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. == Description == The hooded plover is medium in size for a plover, stocky, and pale in colour. Its length is 190 to 230 mm (7.5–9.1 in) and its wing-span 230 to 440 mm (9.1–17.3 in). It has…