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European Golden Plover

European Golden Plover

Pluvialis apricaria

Identify the European Golden Plover by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The European Golden Plover is a medium-sized, gold-spangled plover of tundra, moorland and bogs across northern Europe and western Siberia. In breeding plumage it has a black face and belly bordered by a white S-shaped stripe. It winters in western and southern Europe, North Africa and south-western Asia, often in large flocks on farmland and short grass. Some southern breeding populations have declined or disappeared.

Did you know?

  • Its scientific name apricaria means “basking in the sun”.
  • A pub debate over whether it was Europe's fastest game bird helped inspire the Guinness World Records book.

Voice

Call
Flight call

About the species

Identification

The breeding male is easy to identify by its black face, throat and belly bordered by a white stripe; the back, wings and crown are spangled gold and black, and the legs grey. Young and winter birds are mottled golden-brown above, with a spotted breast and white belly. In flight the white axillaries and a narrow white wing bar show, separating it from Grey Plover, which has black “armpits”. The call is a melancholy, minor-key “tüü”.

Family

Charadriidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

black, yellow, white, brown

About the habitat

Breeds on open, treeless tundra, moorland, wet heaths and bogs with short vegetation and pools; outside the breeding season fields, ploughland, short meadows, coastal grassland and estuaries.

Diet

Mainly invertebrates taken from the ground – beetles, flies, craneflies, ants, caterpillars, spiders and earthworms – as well as small snails and berries such as crowberry; chicks rely heavily on flies.

Behaviour

Feeds by running and pausing to pick prey from the surface. Wary, adults stand upright to scan for danger and give a plaintive, slightly descending “tüü”. Outside the breeding season it forms large, cohesive flocks on fields and flats, often with Lapwings. Its flight is fast and powerful.

Sources

Photo: Dagur Brynjólfsson from Hafnarfjordur, Iceland, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kapustarinta.jpg

Sound: Bushman, XC132878, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://xeno-canto.org/132878

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC776784, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/776784

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_golden_plover

See also