An endangered bird has made its way to Bermuda from Prince Edward Island in Canada.

The piping plover was spotted by Bermuda Audubon Society president Andrew Dobson at Cooper’s Island on Sunday.

The small shorebird had been fitted with a tiny plastic leg flag as a chick at North Rustico on Prince Edward Island on July 11.

Mr Dobson said that although one or two piping plovers are recorded most years in Bermuda, this is thought to be the first record of a banded bird.

Three other chicks banded at Prince Edward Island on the same day have been seen this fall in Georgia, Maine and Florida, according to Mr Dobson.

The species has a small population which has declined significantly since the 1950s owing to habitat loss, disturbance and predators.

Piping plovers breed along ocean shores in the northeast Atlantic Coast and along lakeshores and alkali wetlands in the northern Great Plains and Great Lakes.

There have, however, been overall population increases since 1991 as a result of intensive conservation management, so the species is now listed as “near threatened”.

It is still dependent on intensive conservation efforts as the population is estimated at only 8,000 birds.

Eastern populations migrate south to spend the winter along the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, southeast United States and the Caribbean.

Any further sightings of this bird and other piping plovers can be sent to info@audubon.bm