Killdeer numbers and distribution have grown greatly in the past 200 years to include most of mainland North America – including most of Florida. The bad news is that their success has been due to our clearing of the land and “salting it” with patches of gravel in parking lots, yards, and rooftops – and many other species have declined as their preferred habitat disappeared.
Yes, Killdeer do sometimes nest on flat, graveled rooftops. How do the chicks get down? They jump. A hatchling Killdeer is a very light ball of fluff and may land uninjured from a roof that may be several stories up – even if the ground below is covered with concrete or asphalt. Gutters present a problem if they completely surround a rooftop. My wife and I found such a rooftop with a Killdeer nest in Mississippi. When the Killdeer chicks hatched, their parents called from the ground and the chicks ran to the edge of the roof – only to fall into a gutter that they couldn’t climb out of. Their parents continued to call to them from the ground and eventually one parent got close to a gutter downspout and heard the chicks calling from the gutter through the downspout. The adult called back at the base of the downspout. The chicks heard the call, came to the spout it was coming from, and jumped into the darkness! Now that is “special delivery” – all four chicks made it safely to the ground.
Many aspects of Killdeer ecology seem almost magical. Another example is how they deal with summer heat when they nest in the open. Their answer is to frequently go to the nearest water, soak their belly feathers, then return quickly to the nest to shade the eggs or young – and drip water on them. Such “belly-soaking” behavior is also seen in other birds that have benefited from our habitat alterations – such as Purple Martins that nest in hot metal birdhouses.