Red-capped plover
Charadrius ruficapillus Temminck, 1821
Status not recordedbirds
The red-capped plover (Charadrius ruficapillus) is a species in the family Charadriidae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 37.4 g to 42 g and live up to 15 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia.
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Quick facts about the red-capped plover
- Weight
- 37.4 g – 42 g
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 15 years
- Diet
- Aquatic predator
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 19 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- coastal
- Egg incubation
- 25 days
- Young per litter or clutch
- 2.91
- Age at maturity
- 10.9 months – 14 months
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1.5
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrial
- Migration
- Partial
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the red-capped plover live?
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.
The red-capped plover is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Is the red-capped plover endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the red-capped plover classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyCharadriidae
- genusCharadrius
- SpeciesCharadrius ruficapillus Temminck, 1821
Synonyms Aegialitis canus, Anarhynchus ruficapillus, Charadrius alexandrinus ruficapillus, Charadrius ruficapillus tormenti
Other names and names in other languages (7)
- Red-capped dotterelEnglish
- Rotkopf-RegenpfeiferGerman
- Chorlitejo capirrojoSpanish
- Pluvier à tête rousseFrench
- rødhetteloNorwegian Bokmål
- roodkopplevierDutch
- batuíra-de-capuz-vermelhoPortuguese
Relatives of the red-capped plover
Other species in the same genus Charadrius.

Little ringed plover
Charadrius dubius

Common ringed plover
Charadrius hiaticula

Kentish plover
Charadrius alexandrinus

Eurasian dotterel
Charadrius morinellus

Greater sand plover
Charadrius leschenaultii

Siberian sand plover
Charadrius mongolus
CompareRed-capped plover vs Little ringed ploverRed-capped plover vs Common ringed ploverRed-capped plover vs Kentish ploverRed-capped plover vs Eurasian dotterel
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the red-capped plover?
An adult red-capped plover weighs 37.4 g – 42 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the red-capped plover live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the red-capped plover for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
How long does the red-capped plover live?
The red-capped plover has a recorded lifespan of 15 years.
What kind of animal is the red-capped plover?
The red-capped plover (Charadrius ruficapillus) belongs to the family Charadriidae in the order Charadriiformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
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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 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · 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 · 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 · 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). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
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Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Red-capped plover (Charadrius ruficapillus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-capped-plover
“Red-capped plover (Charadrius ruficapillus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-capped-plover.
@misc{red_capped_plover_2026,
title = {Red-capped plover (Charadrius ruficapillus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-capped-plover},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}