A piping plover on Waukegan Beach in 2018. (Ethan Ellis / Flickr)
Chicago’s piping plover chicks are a few weeks old now and it’s time to call these cuties something other than Chick 1, Chick 2 and Chick 3.
The Chicago Audubon Society, the Chicago Ornithological Society and the Illinois Ornithological Society have teamed up on a contest to name the baby birds, which hatched in mid-June. The chicks were banded on June 29 and are now individually identifiable.
Online submissions are open through Wednesday and the winners will be announced before the chicks fly the coop on their southern migration.
Submission forms are available in English and Spanish. Each entrant can suggest as many as three names, which should reflect Chicago’s heritage, culture and diversity, according to contest guidelines.
The chicks’ parents, Monty and Rose, are named for Montrose beach, where the pair, to the delight of Chicago’s birding community, turned up in 2019, and returned to breed again in 2020.
Piping plovers are endangered in the Great Lakes, with only about 70 breeding pairs remaining. According to the Chicago Ornithological Society, the surprise appearance of Monty and Rose in 2019, which resulted in two surviving chicks, marked the first time since 1955 that plovers successfully bred in Cook County.
Now that they're banded, it's time to name them!
Submit up to three names for consideration that you think in some way reflect Chicago's heritage, culture and diversity.https://t.co/1eBY7i84sz
— Chicago Ornithological Society (@chicago_birder) June 30, 2020
Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 | [email protected]
