DR. LIVINGSTONE described a relative of this bird which he met with in Africa as "a most plaguey sort of public-spirited individual that follows you everywhere, flying overhead, and is most persevering in his attempts to give fair warning to all animals within hearing to flee from the approach of danger," a characteristic which has caused the killdeer to be an object of dislike to the gunner. It is usually the first to take alarm at his approach and starts up all other birds in the vicinity by its loud cries. It can run with such swiftness that, according to Audubon, to run "like a killdeer" has in some parts of the country passed into a proverb. It is also active on the wing and mounts at pleasure to a great height in the air, with a strong and rapid flight, which can be continued for a long distance. In the love season it performs various kinds of evolutions while on the wing.

This plover is found throughout temperate North America to Newfoundland and Manitoba, nests throughout range, and winters south of New England to Bermuda, the West Indies, Central and South America. From March to November, and later, it is resident, and is very abundant in spring and autumn migrations. These birds are generally seen in flocks when on the wing, but scatter when feeding. Pastures and cultivated fields, tracts of land near water, lakesides and marshes seem necessary to it. The sound uttered by it, kildeer, kildeer, dee, dee, is almost incessant, but it is often low and agreeable, with a plaintive strain in it. When apparently in danger the voice rises higher and shriller. Cows, horses, sheep, and the larger poultry that wander over a farm are said not to alarm these birds in the least. But they are wild in the presence of man wherever they have been persecuted. They will often squat till one is close upon them, and will then suddenly fly up or run off, startling the unwary intruder by their loud and clear cry. In winter the killdeer is an unusually silent bird, in which season it is found dispersed over the cultivated fields in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and other southern states, diligently searching for food. Davie says that it may often be heard on moonlight nights. The nest is placed on the ground, usually in the vicinity of a stream or pond, often on an elevated spot in the grass or in a furrowed field. It is merely a slight depression in the ground. The eggs are drab or clay color, thickly spotted and blotched with blackish brown and umber, small and quite pointed. They are generally four in number, measuring 1.50 to 1.60 long by about 1.10 broad.

The plovers resemble the snipe in structure, but are smaller, averaging about the size of a thrush. Their bills also are shorter. They have three toes usually; their bodies are plump; short, thick necks, long wings, and in some instances they have spurs on the wings. They pick their food, which is largely of an animal nature, from the surface of the ground, instead of probing for it, as their shorter bills indicate. The flesh of the killdeer is not highly regarded as a food.