Whenever you’re out on the beach with someone who really knows their piping plovers, you’ll often hear them say, with tremendous confidence, things like “Oh! I see a piping plover! What beautiful female,” even though in reality they all look pretty-much exactly the same.
Then, wait for it… about 10 seconds later, the bird will move a little and they’ll hedge; “Hmmm, wait… no, maybe that’s a male. No… I’m pretty sure it’s a female.” This is a pretty safe game to play for just about anyone. Not only do you cover all of your bases, but who could, or would bother attempting to, prove you wrong?
So, what gives? Are they just making this stuff up to sound smart? Let’s find out!
A few days ago I was out with Michelle Stantial for Round II of the epic 2026 banding of Plover Park’s unbanded adult piping plovers. While it was a great day all-around, the real highlight was when Michelle proved she’s still got it by “double fisting” our new pair at nest 9A. She pulled off the rare feat of trapping the male, then, while banding him, managing to somehow-also trap the female.
The soft light of a late spring evening made this a perfect opportunity to quickly photograph a male and female piping plover side by side. What a great teachable moment. But when I reviewed these precious photos at home, I was both delighted and disappointed to see that this was a very challenging pair to sex. It takes a much sharper eye than average to sex these two from these photos.
That’s when I hatched an evil plan to send these photos to several so-called experts, equally aroused to a horrific cackling by the two potential outcomes of this challenge. Would the greats be brought low and humbled, forever to wear scarlet “PP”s on their breast, providing a dose of the schadenfreude the internet so desperately craves to further the illusion that we all know better than they? Or would they demonstrate that there really is such a thing as expertise in this world? Terrified by the destructive forces that could be unleashed by such high stakes, I gave each participant the option of responding anonymously.
Yet none of them hid behind that cloak. So let’s see how they did.
First up is Todd Pover himself, the father of Plover Park:
I’m the worst (of this crew) at this. I can never do it in the field very well. Here with photos, I vote male left, female right. But I wouldn’t bet a darn penny of my paycheck on it. LOL.
Male has more and brighter orange in beak, crisper separation from orange to black. Also, supposedly the brow band goes closer to the eye in males, this one is not all the way, but there are flecks of black feather beyond the base brow that go closer to the eye.
Female has less of a crisp separation between orange and black of beak, blackish fade into orange. Also less bright orange beak overall.
This beats the “old-school” diagnosis of the male having a more complete and/or darker/thicker neck band, there is so much variation on that and the band looks different in every pose of the bird, one minute it looks thick, the next as it tilts its head it is pencil thin.
~Todd Pover
Next up, co-mom of NJFW’s beach nesting crew, Kashi Davis:
I would not say “confidently” from just two still images and no other evidence, but my best guess is male on the left, female on the right. Male’s bill is a brighter orange and the distinction between orange and black is a bit more defined, while hers is a little “smudgier”. She does have more “mustache” than him, but I don’t consider that as diagnostic as the smudgy bill line.
I am ok if not anon – being wrong is just an opportunity to learn something new!
~Kashi Davis
Next up, Erin Betancourt, who used to be part of the field crew at Holgate, and now runs the program in Deleware for USFW:
I’d guess male left, female right. Based primarily on bill color. Male has more orange/brighter orange and better definition between the black/orange. We’ve also got a pair here with a male who has a less distinct collar and headband than the female. He seems to be losing black feathers every breeding season. Bill is still good though.
~Erin Betancourt
Next, the legendary wizard, Jonathan Cohen, the Graduate Director for the Department of Environmental Biology at SUNY ESF who mentored the great Michelle Stantial:
That’s a tough one. I would guess the one on my left is a male and the one on my right a female, though it’s not clearcut.
~ JC
(Classic JC. Notice how he specifically defines “my right” for enhanced clarity and accuracy.)
Thanks to Michelle passing this around, we also got input from Rebecca Linhart who was Michelle’s partner-in-crime during her years of work with piping plover in New Jersey, and a featured guest in many classic Readings:
Oh ABSOLUTELY!
Male on the left female on the right. No explanation needed. (Just kidding, the left bird has a brighter orange bill with a cleaner tip, where the one on the right has a more smudgy look and darker in color.)
~ Rebeca Linhart
Here we have Alison Kocek, PHD; the Mother of Great Lakes Plovers and another student of Jonathan Coen’s from SUNY ESF:
I’m game! I would sex the bird on the right as female due to her slightly smudgey black bill tip and the bird on the left as male as his bill is pretty crisp and clean. Those Jersey ladies sure have the impressive brow bands and baby ‘staches!
~ Alison Kocek
This one is totally unfair, because THE BIRDS WERE IN HER HANDS:
BOI haz SPICY CHEETO beak and crisp inky tip.
GURL haz dusty pumpkin snoot and smudgy tip.
dis one BOI (left). dis one GURL (right).~Michelle Stantial
And, saving the best for last, here is the great Emily Heiser from NJFW:
I’ve attached my findings.
In short, the bird on the right is clearly the female due to the smudgey-ness (scientific term) of her bill. The male has a striking line delineating the orange from the black.
~ Emily Heiser
So there you have it. Our expert panel was unanimous, and, correct! That’s the male Fee on the left, and the female, Milly Grace, on the right.
Apparently you can sex piping plovers accurately by the face alone, using just a few scientific terms like cheetos ™, pumpkin, smudgy, and not-smudgy.
But the real teachable moment here is how fortunate we are to have so many experts working on the piping plover problem.
As Zen master Shunryu Suzuki once taught, “This is the mystery. When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will understand nothing.”
Piping plovers might not be something that interests you, let alone sexing them. Yet that’s the beauty of having experts in this world. We can offload to them all of the knowledge we are not interested in having ourselves.
Because we surely love the shore. Not only because it’s our little heaven on earth, but also because its natural beauty is the essence of a multi-billion dollar economy. If the native animals are not doing well on the beach, that’s not a great sign for our future here, economic or otherwise.
And if our experts are able to tell the sex of the tiny piping plovers who should be thriving here just by looking at their faces, then we should surely wonder, what else are they seeing out there that we’re not?
So the next time someone gives you a trolling hot-take on piping plovers, the small restrictions that protect them, and the people who champion them, ask that person to show you a piping plover first, and then to sex it.
If they can’t, ask an expert who can, for their take first!
Say something kind