---
title: "Snowy Plover"
description: "Anarhynchus nivosus — Birds. The snowy plover (Anarhynchus nivosus, formerly Charadrius nivosus) is a small shorebird found in the Americas."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/snowy-plover
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Snowy Plover

> Anarhynchus nivosus — Birds. The snowy plover (Anarhynchus nivosus, formerly Charadrius nivosus) is a small shorebird found in the Americas.

- Scientific name: *Anarhynchus nivosus*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `sea` (Sea & coast)
- iNaturalist observations: 16418
- Wikidata: [Q137195955](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137195955)
- iNaturalist taxon: [1505663](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1505663)

## Names

- en: Snowy Plover
- de: Schneeregenpfeifer
- es: Chorlo nevado
- fr: Pluvier neigeux

## Countries with the most observations

US (13719), MX (1301), CL (334), PE (138), CA (57), PR (36), CR (13), SV (13), EC (12), CO (7), HN (6), DO (5)

## Summary

The snowy plover (Anarhynchus nivosus, formerly Charadrius nivosus) is a small shorebird found in the Americas. It is a member of the bird family Charadriidae, which includes the plovers, dotterels, and lapwings. The snowy plover was originally described by John Cassin in 1858, but was classified as a subspecies of the Kentish plover in 1922. Since 2011, the snowy plover has been recognized as a distinct species based on genetic and anatomical differences from the Kentish plover. Two or three subspecies are recognized, distributed along the Pacific coast of North America, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, in several inland…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_plover

## Photo

![Snowy Plover](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/snowy-plover/medium.jpg)

Photo: Arn Rytter Jensen · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/106286701

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/snowy-plover?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).