Four-egg clutches in the hooded plover: Description, occurrence and female investment

We describe five nests of the Hooded Plover, from Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia, each of which contained four eggs. Clutches of four eggs are rare, but have been recorded from all major types of habitats except inland wetlands. At least some eggs are known to have hatched in the fouregg clutches that were monitored, though only one was known to hatch all four chicks; only one nest produced fledglings. The proportion of female body weight represented by the eggs in the clutch, a crude measure of female investment, indicated that four-egg clutches did not represent an unusually high investment in comparison with the normal investment made by other species of plovers in Australasia.