Dexter’s Killdeer Nests

Dexter students as well as baseball and softball players and their families have had a close up view this spring of the Killdeer, and its unique nesting habits.

Over the past two months, Killdeer birds have made their nests in a couple of spots around the school district campus. One at the Quad baseball/softball fields, next to Creekside Intermediate School, and another made recently behind Anchor Elementary School, near the playground.

Killdeer birds are known to inhabit open areas such as sandbars, mudflats, and grazed fields, but they are also seen around towns, where they live on lawns, driveways, athletic fields, parking lots, airports and golf courses. The interesting places picked for a nest was on full display in Dexter.

At the Quad fields, the Killdeer nested right next to a fence that went down the right field line of one field. It was a huge curiosity for kids and adults alike. People would stop to take a look while the parent birds protected their eggs.

At Anchor, the birds picked a grass-lined crack in the pavement for its nest. Like at the Quads, a protective barrier was placed around the nest to keep kids and people away at a good distance.

According to Cornell Lab’s All About Birds webpage, “Killdeer nests are simple scrapes often placed on slight rises in their open habitats. Killdeer may make several scrapes not far away from each other before choosing one to lie in. The duplication may help to confuse predators.”

Nests are typically a shallow depression scratched into the bare ground, typically 3-3.5 inches across. After egg-laying begins, Killdeer often add rocks, bits of shell, sticks, and trash to the nest. 

Photos by Lonnie Huhman