dotterel, any of several species of birds of the plover family, Charadriidae (order Charadriiformes), especially the Eurasian dotterel (Eudromias morinellus). The Eurasian dotterel is mottled brown above, with a broad, white eye stripe and a narrow, white band separating its breast, which is gray, from its russet-coloured belly. It is about 20 centimetres (8 inches) long. It nests in tundra and in mountains across Eurasia to western Alaska and as far south as Britain and the Balkans, migrating to northern Africa and the Middle East. The male undertakes most of the nesting duties.
Several plovers of the genus Charadrius are called dotterels in Australia, as is C. (sometimes Pluviorhynchus) obscurus in New Zealand. Two dotterels, the tawny-throated (Oreopholus ruficollis) and the rufous-chested (Zonibyx modestus), are found in southern South America.
Peltohyas australis is a courser (family Glareolidae) sometimes called the Australian, or inland, dotterel.