Piping plovers are a threatened species that rely on prairie wetlands and, like the interior least tern, need natural river flows to replenish the sandbars where they nest. The species have such similar nesting requirements, in fact, that often several plover pairs will settle down in the middle of a crowd of least terns, depending on the swarms of noisy terns to chase off any predators. Plovers forage for small insects on bare sandbars and wetland shores. The restoration of the Missouri River's pattern of high water in the spring and lower levels during the summer is vital for the plover's survival.

Federally threatened, state endangered.