Killdeer broken wing act

Killdeer nest in the horse riding arena? The trainer marked it with a cone so people would ride around it. Here, one killdeer acts as though it is hurt and easy prey in order to try to lure me away from the nest on May 24. Eventually they settled into the riding routine, hatched out all four chicks June 11 and, that same afternoon, ran off with their parents to "greener pastures" for insects. Congratulations!
Featuring:
Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus - They certainly do make a vociferous "kill-deer" sound!
Link: Why pretend to have a broken wing? To save their nest and family!

[leslietaylor]

I've seen these in person. Sadly a lot of them lay their eggs in gravel parking lots

[theyinthetree]

Killdeer: please follow me, I have broken wing please stay away from my egg

Human: ‘ *slowly pulling out phone* ‘

[familhagaudir]

"WOE IS ME AND MY DELICIOUS BROKEN CHICKEN WINGS OVER HERE." Lol

P.S. : They nest every year where I work and their silly act tells me to be careful not to step on the chicks or eggs.

The chicks will play perfect dead too while daddy is doing his theater act.

[thebernice]

Eagles can rip skin and crush bone, owls have night vision and razor sharp talons, ravens are thought to be as smart as dolphins, the killdeer... is really good a pretending its wing is broken. Evolution really shorted these guys.

[mikegrasso]

there are some years where these birds are "dying" all over the the place

[noddygirl]

I've lived SE Pennsylvania my whole life and only just saw this bird and its dance last week. 35 years. They're so cool!

[IndoCropCirclesOfficial]

This bird is so beautiful and the best actor too

[bobhenry]

That's some deep thinking.
Predator will think I'm a better meal and chase. I'll keep just out of reach until they forget the nest.

[ewrstmz]

Whenever it would try to lure me in a direction I would go the opposite way until I found it’s nest. Of course I just find it and leave it alone

[erdieaquino]

*gets closer to the eggs*
killdeer: oh shi

[johnwelchphotography]

Reminds me of the piping plover, which does the same thing if nest or chicks are threatened! Thanks for sharing this behavior!

[miroslavzima]

They surely kill deers...by being cute!
Overwhelming cuteness increases blood sugar and kills the victim instantly by hyperglycemy!

[Chrisss]

I worry about sky predators honing in on them looking like they’re injured 😢

[davidgivins]

Where humans learned to deceive as humans became great students 😂😅😊❤

[coinwater]

We all had this kid on our childhood sports teams right? The second something on the field/court doesn't go their way they're "hurt" 😂

[upnorthvlogs]

If they quit laying their egg 🥚 and gravel parking gravel lot then they wouldn’t have to play broken wing

[kyojuro_rengoku]

I saw a killdeer in person, it was so cute and I didn't know that they did that until it did it upon noticing me

[XavierAway]

It makes you wonder how some species still exist, seems like a very suboptimal strategy. But apparently not…

[darronlockett]

Killdeer lay their eggs in the most trafficked human areas then pretend to be wounded to lure predators away when humans come near lol

[SilentWalker.]

This is technically an act of offense. It's commonly used by these birds to distract predators from the eggs or chicks.