From the Virginia beaches south to Florida and Texas, WILSON PLOVER is more or less common locally. Parents will go thru such a violent series of "broken wing" tactics as to actually leave them exhausted on the sand.
I have seen them rarely on the Long Island beaches where their large black bills easily identified them. They were always alone, never mixing with the other species. A small flock of six noticed in September, 1891, on Rockaway Beach were probably one family. They were extremely unsuspicious, allowing me to approach within twenty feet and took wing with a peculiar quit-quit.
Southern United States. Rare in western part of its range.