One of four new piping plover chicks at Chicago's Montrose Beach dies

One of four piping plover chicks that recently hatched at Montrose Beach has died, the Chicago Piping Plovers conservation organization announced Tuesday.

The piping plover chick banded with a yellow star — recently named Mavis for legendary gospel and R&B singer Mavis Staples — became a "tiny, shooting star [that] faded into the eternal night," the organization said.

There was no further information available on Mavis' death, and Chicago Piping Plovers asked, out of respect for the monitors and scientists involved, that people not request further details.

Mavis was one of four new chicks that hatched this month. They were named and banded, and their names were announced Monday — in addition to Mavis, they were named Buddy, Frankie, and Tweedy.

The sources for the other names are blues legend Buddy Guy, house music pioneer Frankie Knuckles, and alt rock and country legend Jeff Tweedy.

The chicks are the offspring of parents Sea Rocket and Imani.

Piping plovers have frequently nested at Montrose Beach since 2019.

Monty and Rose — named after the beach that is in turn named after the east-west street of which it serves at the mouth — were the first to nest at Montrose Beach in 71 years when they appeared in 2019.

Monty and Rose were Imani's parents. Sea Rocket was a captive-reared chick that was released in Chicago in 2023 along with two other plovers, Wild Indigo and Prickly Pear.