The New Zealand dotterel (Charadrius obscurus) is a species of shorebird found only in certain areas of New Zealand. It is also called the New Zealand plover or red-breasted dotterel, and its Māori names include , , and . The southern subspecies of the New Zealand plover is considered critically endangered and was nearing extinction with about 75 individuals remaining in 1990. Conservation measures increased this to 250 by 2005, but a further decline has occurred since 2012 to an estimated 60–80 mature individuals in 2017. Taxonomy and systematics The New Zealand dotterel was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the plovers in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius obscurus. Gmelin's description was based on the "Dusky plover" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The species had been collected in April 1773 on James Cook's second voyage to the South Pacific at Dusky Sound, South Island, New Zealand. The specific epithet obscurus is Latin meaning "dark" or "dusky". A 2015 study determined that its closest relatives are two other New Zealand plovers, the wrybill, which was found to be in the Charadrius clade, and the double-banded plover. Two subspecies are recognised, although a taxonomic review has supported recognition of tentative species status for each of the two populations and this was recognised in the Handbook of the Birds of the World (BirdLife, 2014) and in the conservation listing of the IUCN. C. o. aquilonius - Dowding, 1994: Found on the North Island (New Zealand) C. o. obscurus - Gmelin, JF, 1789: Found on the South Island and Stewart Island (New Zealand) Distribution and habitat New Zealand dotterels are usually found in two disjunct populations in New Zealand, usually on sandy beaches and sand spits or feeding in tidal estuaries. The northern population occurs on the North Island and the southern population occurs at the southern end of the South Island and on Stewart Island/Rakiura. Behaviour and ecology Breeding Parents lay eggs in the spring and summer. They nest on beaches above the high tide mark, and the nest is just a shallow hole dug in the ground. Parents typically lay 2-3 eggs and are replaced if lost. The chicks hatch about 28 days after