Definition of "turnstone" []

• Either of two wading birds, Arenaria interpres, a widely distributed species that is dark brown above with large areas of chestnut and black, or A. melanocephala, having black and white plumage, that breeds along the coast of Alaska and winters from there to Baja California. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Species such as red knot ( '' Calidris canutus '') and ruddy turnstone ( '' Arenaria interpres '') are inferred to have had much larger populations and more extensive breeding areas during glacial stages, although others, such as dunlin ( '' C. alpina ''), exhibit evidence of range fragmentation during glacial stages leading to the evolution of distinct geographically restricted infraspecific taxa."
• "However, there is no doubt that mangroves of this ecoregion are crucial to several long-distance bird migrants including ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres), spotted sandpiper (Actitis macularia), and whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) that utilize them as feeding and resting places from August through April during their extraordinary intercontinental journey."
• "Several migratory wader species are regular visitors to the island, principally are double-banded dotterel Charadrius bicinctus, eastern golden plover Pluvialis dominica, turnstone Arenaria interpres, whimbrel Numenius phaeopus and bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica."