plover

noun

• a short-billed gregarious wading bird, typically found by water but sometimes frequenting grassland, tundra, and mountains.

  • Family Charadriidae (the plover family): several genera and numerous species, especially the ringed plovers (Charadrius), grey and golden plovers (Pluvialis), and lapwings (Vanellus)
• used in names of birds similar to the plover in other families, e.g. Egyptian plover.