# Grey plover (*Pluvialis squatarola*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/grey-plover  
Data as of: 2026-11-11

The grey plover (Pluvialis squatarola), also called the Black-bellied plover or Gray plover, is a bird in the family Charadriidae and the order Charadriiformes. It is a small, migratory, terrestrial carnivore in the aquatic predator diet category, with an adult body mass of 250 g and a wingspan of 77 cm. Its habitat is grassland, and checklists record it in Australia. The grey plover is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, an IUCN threatened category.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 202 g – 250 g |
| Length | Not recorded |
| Wingspan | 77 cm |
| Lifespan | 20.3 years |
| Diet | Aquatic predator |
| Longest recorded lifespan | 25.6 years |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | grassland |
| Egg incubation | 26.8 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 4 |
| Age at maturity | 2 years – 2.24 years |
| Litters or clutches a year | 1 |
| Lifestyle | Terrestrial |
| Migration | Migratory |
| Conservation status | Vulnerable (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | 1 country |

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Aves
- order: Charadriiformes
- family: Charadriidae
- genus: Pluvialis
- species: *Pluvialis squatarola* (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms: *Charadarius squatarola*, *Charadrius helveticus*, *Charadrius hypomelanus*, *Charadrius hypomelus*, *Charadrius megalorhynchus*, *Charadrius naevius*, *Charadrius pardela*, *Charadrius squatarola*, *Pluvialis squatarola squaratola*, *Squatarola cinerea*, *Squatarola grisea*, *Squatarola helvetica*, *Squatarola helvetica australis*, *Squatarola helvetica wilsoni*, *Squatarola megarhynchos*, *Squatarola rhynchomega*, *Squatarola sqatarola australis*, *Squatarola squatarola*, *Squatarola subtridactyla*, *Squatarola subtridactyla*, *Tringa helvetica*, *Tringa varia*, *Vanellus melanogaster*

## Countries on record

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

Australia

## Common questions

### What kind of animal is the grey plover?

The grey plover is a bird in the family Charadriidae, order Charadriiformes.

### How heavy is the grey plover?

The grey plover has an adult body mass of 250 g, which places it in the small size class, and a wingspan of 77 cm.

### What does the grey plover eat?

The grey plover is a carnivore in the aquatic predator diet category.

### Is the grey plover endangered?

The grey plover is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, which is an IUCN threatened category.

### How long does the grey plover live?

The grey plover has a lifespan of 20.3 years, with values up to 25.6 years reported.

### Which countries is the grey plover recorded in?

Checklists record the grey plover in Australia.

### How many young does the grey plover have?

The grey plover has a clutch size of 4, with 1 clutch per year and an incubation period of 26.75 days.

### Who named the grey plover?

The scientific name Pluvialis squatarola carries the authority (Linnaeus, 1758).

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), CC BY 4.0, v7. Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Grey plover (Pluvialis squatarola). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/grey-plover