Killdeer

It's binomial is well earned as you often hear the killdeer before you see it. A common plover of N America, it is one of the first birds people learn to identify. When non breeding, they are often found near water - breeding season has them in a variety of short grass fields, parks, and sometimes rooftops and gravel lots. Their movement is a characteristic series of starts and stops as they hunt for small insects, invertebrates and sometimes seeds