gravel with its feet and makes a shallow pit or depression, about deep and in diameter, by pressing its chest against the ground. The male attracts a female by calling her. When a female comes to the nest, the male spreads his tail for courtship display. The female passes under the tail of the male and enters the nest. The male makes many of these pits on the ground and guides the female from one pit to another, and the female eventually lays eggs in one of nests. The female lays one egg every 48 hours until she has a clutch of four eggs. The diameter and length of an egg is typically around respectively. The eggs generally weigh around . The eggs are pear-shaped, and they are grayish brown or bluish gray in color with tiny brown spots. Both male and female take part in nest maintenance. They line their nest with small pebbles, twigs, small pieces of bark, and other dry plant parts. Both male and female also carry out incubation of eggs. Eggs normally hatch 29 days after the start of incubation. Incubation period can vary because of human disturbance. Long-billed plovers show a decent amount of parental care. If a predator approaches a nest, the parents try to intimidate the enemy and chase it away by making loud distress calls. Furthermore, on very hot summer days, the parents protect the eggs from overheating by standing over them and shading them from the sun. Long-billed plovers give birth to precocial offspring, meaning that the hatchlings can move around and feed by themselves shortly after hatching. The parents constantly monitor the hatchlings and are always on the lookout for any signs of danger. The hatchlings gain body mass at the rate of per day, and they become ready to fly when they are 40 days old. Fledglings remain together with their parents for a short time before they leave the nest and migrate to their wintering grounds. Long-billed plovers tend to return to the same breeding for several consecutive years. This indicates that the same pairs occupy the same nesting sites every year. The pairs tend to be attracted to the same breeding sites year after year. They begin to establish territories when the area still remains covered with snow, suggesting that they must have previous knowledge of the suitability of the site. Conservation status The long-billed plover