Here's a Killdeer, a shorebird that is found over much of North America. We photographed this one at Boundary Bay, south of Vancouver (and rather close to our house). There is a dike built up along the banks of the bay to protect farmer's fields from salt water during extraordinary high tides. This bird and its mate had built a nest right on top of the dike, about a metre from a popular and heavily travelled pathway. When people pass by the birds stay motionless on the nest and are surprisingly difficult to spot. If someone notices them and starts paying them too much attention the birds begin to pretend that they have a broken wing and draw the intruder further and further away from the nest - until they decide that they are far away enough and fly back to their nest. This is exactly what the bird in the lower picture is doing, note how this act shows off the bird's beautiful plummage.
