Resightings of two-banded plovers (charadrius falklandicus) during the breeding season in coastal chubut, patagonia, Argentina

Abstract

We report resightings of individually-marked Two-banded Plovers (Charadrius falklandicus) breeding in northern Patagonia across two consecutive seasons in two beaches separated by approximately 65 km in a straight line: Playas Blancas (Península Valdés) and Playa Paraná (Puerto Madryn), Chubut province, Argentina. We captured and banded 24 adults at the nest while incubating during 2016. Nineteen banded individuals (ca. 80%) were resighted in 2017, 17 on the same site where they were banded, while 2 moved between survey sites. Only 32% were found breeding again while the remaining 68% were resighted resting or foraging, solitarily or in mixed flocks with other shorebird species. Among the resighted breeders, two adults were found paired with a different banded partner as in the previous year. The remaining breeders were paired with unbanded partners, and hence mate fidelity could not be assessed. Our findings add information to the scarce data on the breeding biology of this species suggesting that Two-banded Plovers exhibit site fidelity.