Distribution

Figure 1. Distribution of the Snowy Plover in North America.

The Americas

Breeding Range

Figure 1. Pacific Coast. From s. Washington to Magdalena Bay, Baja Sur, Mexico; Gulf of California at mouth of Rio Colorado (at Cienga de Santa Clara, Mellink et al. 1996) and on islands of Angel de La Guarda and (probably) Punta Arena la Ventana (Am. Ornithol. Union 1983, Palacios et al.1994); locally along west coast of Mexico from Sonora to Oaxaca (Binford 1989, Mellink and Palacios 1993, Palacios and Mellink 1995, Mellink and Riojas-Lopez 2005); and on coast of South America from sw. Ecuador to Chiloe I., Chile (Blake 1977, Am. Ornithol. Union 1983, Castro and Myers 1988).

Inland. Locally in s.-central Oregon (Harney, Lake, and Klamath counties; Gilligan et al. 1994), San Joaquin Valley, Salton Sea and e. California (Page and Stenzel 1981, Shuford et al. 2008), w. and central Nevada (Herman et al. 1988), nw. Utah (Paton and Edwards 1990), and s. Arizona (Monson and Phillips 1981). Breeding range in w. U.S. is summarized by Page et al. (1991). Also s. Saskatchewan (irregular; Gollop 1987), sw. Wyoming (irregular; Kingery 1990), sw. Montana (irregular; Eng 1981), central and e. Colorado (Andrews and Righter 1992), s. New Mexico (Page et al. 1991), central and sw. Kansas (Thompson and Ely 1989), w. Oklahoma (Baumgartner and Baumgartner 1992), lakes in south and playa lakes region of Texas (Gorman and Haig 2002), and central Mexico (states of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Jalisco, and Mexico) (Howell and Webb 1994).

Gulf Coast. Discontinuously distributed along the southwest coast of Florida from Marco I. north to Anclote Key and along the coast of the Florida Panhandle, where most Florida breeders now occur; in Alabama and Mississippi mainly on offshore islands; along the lower Texas coast from Matagorda Island to Mexican border; and south to ne. Veracruz and n. coast of Yucatán Peninsula (Howell and Webb 1995, Gorman and Haig 2002, Himes et. al. 2006; also see Fig. 1).

Atlantic. Snowy Plovers breed on islands throughout the Caribbean and Bahamas but documented sites are few. They are common year-round residents south of San Salvador I. to the Turks and Caicos Is., and an uncommon resident n. of San Salvador. In the Caribbean, breeding documented in Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (Raffaele 1989, Gorman and Haig 2002), and on islands off the north coast of Venezuela from Curaçao east to Margarita (Am. Ornithol. Union 1983, Voous 1983), but few specific locations noted.

Winter Range

Figure 1. Pacific Coast. Local from s. Washington (Widrig 1980, Pearson et al. 2008) to Nayarit, Mexico (including both coasts of Baja California) (Page et al. 1986, Howell and Webb 1995), at least rarely from Guatemala to Panama where it may be somewhat overlooked (Castro and Myers 1988, Ridgeley and Gwynne 1989, Howell and Webb 1995), and from sw. Ecuador to Chiloe I., Chile (Blake 1977, Castro and Myers 1988).

Inland. Regular at Salton Sea, Tulare Lake Basin in Kings and Tulare counties, and interior lakes in s. California; rare and irregular in s. Arizona, s. New Mexico (Shuford et al. 1995); in nw. and central Texas (Elliott-Smith et al. 2004); also reported in interior Mexico south to central volcanic belt (Howell and Webb 1994, 1995).

Gulf Coast. Along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. and Mexico to the Yucatán Peninsula with records of birds at many sites on the coast of Tamaulipas (Howell and Webb 1995, Mabee et al. 2001, Elliott-Smith et al. 2004).

Atlantic. Irregular w. Florida (Stevenson and Anderson 1994); in Bahamas they are uncommon north, but common south, of San Salvador (Gorman and Haig 2002); on Caribbean Islands they are characterized as common in the Dominican Republic and Anguilla, and uncommon in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, St. Martin, and St. Barthélemy (Raffaele et al. 1998, Elliott-Smith et al. 2004); and on islands off the n. coast of Venezuela they have been sighted on Tobaga, Isla de Margarita, Islas los Roues, Bonaire, Curaçao, and Aruba (Elliott-Smith et al. 2004).

Outside The Americas

Cosmopolitan species with at least 3 races outside the Americas (Johnsgard 1981, Cramp 1983, Hayman et al. 1986). Nominate race, C. a. alexandrinus, occurs in Eurasia and n. Africa, south to Mauritania, Gulf of Aden, Socotra, and w. India, and east to se. Transbaykalia, Russia, and Inner Mongolia. C. a. dealbatus occurs in Japan, e. China, and Ryukyu I.; intergrades with nominate C. a. alexandrinus in Manchuria, Korea, and s. Ussuriland. C. a. seebohmi occurs in Sri Lanka (Cramp 1983).

Historical Changes

In the Americas, information limited to U.S.; more data from Mexico and Central America are needed to document full extent of current range; species was not documented breeding in nw. Sonora until 1994 (E. Palacios unpubl. data) or interior of Mexico until early 1990s (Howell and Webb 1994).

Along U.S. Pacific Coast, breeding range increasingly fragmented during 20th century. By 1990, species bred at only 2 of 5 historical sites on Washington coast and in 1994 at only 7 of 26 on Oregon coast (C. Bruce pers. comm.). During late 1970s, absent from 33 of 53 California coastal locations with breeding records prior to 1970; e.g., missing in parts of San Diego, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties, most of Orange Co., and all of Los Angeles Co. (Page and Stenzel 1981). See Demography and Populations: population status: trends.

Extent of inland breeding range west of Rocky Mtns. only become well documented since late 1970s (Page and Stenzel 1981, Herman et al. 1988, Page et al. 1991, Paton and Edwards 1992). Snowy Plovers likely nested at some of the large terminal lakes (Tulare, Buena Vista, and Goose) in s. San Joaquin Valley, CA, until the demise of the lakes in the late 1940s and 1950s. (Shuford et al. 2008). Since the 1980s, the s. San Joaquin Valley has been inhabited again by up to 200 plovers nesting at human-made agricultural waste-water ponds (Ivey 1984, Page et al. 1991, Shuford et al. 2008). Accidental flooding of a sizable area of s. California desert in early 1900s also produced Salton Sea, a current breeding area for a few hundred Snowy Plovers (Page et al.1991, Shuford et al. 2008).

Few published data on population trends available for the eastern United States and Caribbean; from 1959-1988 trends from CBC data were negative but non-significant in Florida and Texas (Gorman et al. 2002). Range has shrunk and become more fragmented on Gulf Coast. No longer nests on upper Texas coast, north of Matagorda Co. (T. Eubanks pers. comm.), where it formerly bred at least until the 1930s (Williams 1938, Gorman et al. 2002). Breeding on Texas coast is now mainly restricted to Laguna Madre (T. Eubanks pers. comm.). In Florida has disappeared from some Gulf Coast beaches and probably from Keys (Stevenson and Anderson 1994). Also appears to have recently disappeared as a breeder on St. Croix I. in Virgin I. (Raffaele 1989). See Demography and Populations: population status: trends.

Fossil History

No information.