- Pluvialis fulva
Identification
23–26 cm (9-10¼ in)
Breeding Adult
- Upperparts, crown and hind neck are blackish strongly spotted with gold
- A white band across forehead, supercilium and sides of neck
- Black underparts
- Dark grey legs
- Black bill
Non-breeding
- Loses black underparts
- Less gold upperparts
Juvenile: resembles winter adult but has an almost white forehead and supercilium. The flanks are chevroned with dusky-yellow but belly and vent are whitish.
Similar Species
Eurasian Golden Plover: a slightly larger, stockier bird, but with shorter primary extension and shorter legs.
American Golden Plover: Pacific Golden Plover is bit lighter and "golder" overall. Has same white at forehead but not quite as thick, white runs down along sides, thickens at wing bend but continues along the flanks, does not abruptly stop as in the American Golden Plover.
Distribution
Breeds in the tundra of (Siberia and western Alaska). Winters in south Asia, Australasia and the Pacific Ocean islands, notably Hawaii.
A regular vagrant to Europe, north-eastern Africa and California.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species[1].
In the past, it was often considered a subspecies of American Golden Plover (sensu lato) by some authors, under the name 'Lesser Golden Plover'[2].
Habitat
Breeds on arctic and sub-arctic tundra and in stony, gently sloping uplands. Winters at water edges, marshlands, swamps, coastal mudflats, rice-fields, and on short-grass expanses
Behaviour
They may form large flocks on their winter feeding grounds.
Diet
Diet includes molluscs, worms, crustaceans, spiders. During breeding, berries, seeds and leaves are added. They use the typical 'plover' feeding action of 'run and stop'.
Breeding
They make their nest as a shallow scrape lined with lichens. Four eggs are laid, incubated by both parents (26 days). After hatching, the chicks and parents move off to moist shrubby or grassy tundra. When threatened, the parent distracts the predator from the nest or chicks by pretending to have a broken wing. Both parents raise the young, but if the brood is late, only by the male.
Vocalisation
Call: A loud tu-it or keruit or kyew-eek.
Movements
They are long-distance migrants breeding from the Russian Far-East to northern Alaska and migrating as far as Australia and New Zealand.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Avibase
- Stanley Cramp, chief editor et al. (1977). Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford; New York.
- BirdForum Member Observations
- Wiersma, P. & Kirwan, G.M. (2020). Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/53818 on 24 January 2020).
- Chandler, R. (2009). Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A photographic guide. Princeton.
- Johnson, O. W., P. G. Connors, and P. Pyle (2019). Pacific Golden-Plover (Pluvialis fulva), version 3.1. In The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.pagplo.03.1
- O'Brien, M, Crossley, R. & Karlson, K. (2006). The Shorebird Guide. Houghton Mifflin.
- Paulson, D. 2005. Shorebirds of North Amrica: The Photographic Guide. Princeton Univ. Press. .
- Pratt, H.D., Bruner, P., and Berrett, D.G. (1987) A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific. Princeton University Press.
- Pyle, R.L., and P. Pyle. 2017. The Birds of the Hawaiian Islands: Occurrence, History, Distribution, and Status. B.P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI, U.S.A. Version 2 (1 January 2017) http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/birds/rlp-monograph/
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Pacific Golden Plover. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 20 December 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Pacific_Golden_Plover
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
