One of only three Iowa bird species on the Federal Threatened and Endangered species list, the interior population of Piping Plovers is currently considered threatened at the federal level and endangered at the state level. This small plover originally nested on sandbars on the Missouri River. With the drastic alteration of the flow of the Missouri River, those sandbars have largely disappeared and in recent decades in Iowa the species has only been found nesting on fly ash deposits at power plants near Council Bluffs and Sioux City. Piping Plovers are characterized by their light-tan colored back, orange legs, and the single, incomplete, dark bar across their chest.
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indicates a designated IBA.