This female Killdeer is standing over eggs in its "nest." Three eggs are actually present but only one is clearly visible. Even the clearly visible one is very well camouflaged.

It is reputed their call sounds like "kill deer" and thus the name. I don't hear it myself but maybe that's just me.

This is a photo of three very well camouflaged eggs in a Killdeer "nest." Because Killdeer often lay their eggs on gravel, the parking lot at the sanctuary had become a favorite nesting spot for them. Unfortunately a parking lot is a dangerous place for eggs, which leads to much failure for the Killdeer who lay eggs there.

The female Killdeer in this picture is adopting a wounded bird pose and making a distress call. She is trying to lure me away from her nest by convincing me she is easy prey. Luckily for her I only wanted her photo.

This was the second killdeer nest I'd found. The first one was on gravel and this one on flowerbed mulch. Both times the nests were easily overlooked and the eggs hard to spot.

This killdeer tried to lure me away from her nest and eggs fluttering her wings as if injured. Ironically, the only reason I knew her nest was nearby was because of the mother killdeer's behavior. She faked being hurt and then looked back to see if I was buying it.