The breeding status of the Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) along the western coast of Mexico is only partially known. On the western coast of the peninsula of Baja California it was documented thoroughly by Palacios et al. (1994). Along the Gulf of California coast of the peninsula there are only two known or suggested locations (Page et al., 1995), and few places seem to be suitable. The continental Pacific coast of Mexico has salt flats associated with coastal lagoons, which could provide breeding habitat for this species. However, the plover’s breeding distribution here has not been completely assessed, and the only known breeding locations are the delta of the Colorado River (Mellink et al. 1996), Playa Ceuta, Sinaloa (X. Vega pers. comm.), and Oaxaca (Binford 1989). It has been thought that other breeding locations along the western coast are likely (Binford 1989, Howell and Webb 1995).
While searching for Gull-billed Tern (Sterna nilotica) colonies along the western coast of México in 2003 and 2004, we noticed evidence of Snowy Plover breeding at three previously unknown locations, which we report here (Figure 1). After encountering a Snowy Plover, we surveyed the area using binoculars and spotting scope. At each of these sites, we spent between 2 and 5 hours. Our data represent basically breeding records, but numbers of breeding pairs in each area cannot be estimated.