Science & Nature
Chicago’s Newest Plover Chicks Need Names. Here’s How to Enter the Contest
Newly hatched piping plover chicks at Montrose Beach, June 16, 2026. (Courtesy of Chicago Piping Plovers)
Chicago’s newest celebrities need names.
A contest is now open to name the four piping plover chicks that hatched this week at Montrose Beach. The little ones will be individually recognizable once they receive unique combinations of leg bands.
Submissions are being accepted via an online form through 7 p.m. on Sunday, so think fast.
Potential names should reflect Chicago’s heritage, culture and diversity. No names of elected officials, political figures, businesses or corporations will be considered.
For reference, the names chosen for 2025’s chicks were Ferris, El and Bean. In previous years, winning names included Esperanza, Hazel, Nagamo and Nish.
The 2026 chicks’ father, Imani, hatched at Montrose Beach in 2021 and the last surviving chick of Monty and Rose, who in 2019 became the first piping plover pair to successfully breed in Chicago and Cook County since 1948.
This is the third year Imani and mate Sea Rocket have hatched chicks at Montrose. Along with piping plovers nesting in Waukegan, they’re the only breeding pairs in Illinois, with the vast majority of the endangered Great Lakes piping plover population clustered near Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan.
This year has seen a record number of plover nests and the season isn’t over yet. Up in Waukegan, female plover Blaze appears to have chosen a second mate.
Contact Patty Wetli: [email protected]
