The Eurasian dotterel (Charadrius morinellus), also known in Europe as just dotterel, is a small wader in the plover family of birds.
The dotterel is a brown-and-black-streaked bird with a broad, white eye stripe and an orange-red chest band when in breeding plumage. The female is more colourful than the male. The bird is tame and unsuspecting, and the term "dotterel" has been applied contemptuously to mean an old fool.
The Eurasian dotterel is a migratory species, breeding in Northern Europe and Eurosiberia and migrating south to North Africa and the Middle East in the winter. It nests in a bare scrape on the ground and lays two to four eggs. The male does the incubation and rears the chicks, with the female having gone off to find another male and lay another clutch of eggs. It is a common bird with a wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it as being of "least concern".
