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Pacific Golden Plover

Pacific Golden Plover

Pluvialis fulva

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

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The Pacific Golden Plover is a long-distance migratory plover that breeds on the Arctic tundra of northern Siberia and western Alaska and winters across South and Southeast Asia, Australasia and Pacific islands. In breeding plumage it has gold-spotted upperparts and a black face and belly edged with white. In Hawaii the kōlea is famous for returning to the same lawns and parks year after year.

Did you know?

  • It can fly about 4,800 km non-stop from Alaska to Hawaii in three to four days.
  • It was formerly lumped with the American Golden Plover.

Voice

Flight call

About the species

Identification

A medium-sized golden plover (21–25 cm, wingspan 60–70 cm, 100–200 g). The breeding plumage is golden-spangled above and black below, and winter plumage is mottled brown and yellowish. It is slimmer and longer-legged than European Golden Plover, with grey axillaries. It has warmer, yellower tones and shorter wing projection than American Golden Plover. The call resembles a Spotted Redshank's.

Family

Charadriidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

black, yellow, white, brown

About the habitat

Breeds on open Arctic tundra; outside the breeding season short-grass areas, fields, beaches and tidal flats, and even lawns, parks, golf courses and rooftops.

Diet

Mainly insects, spiders, molluscs and crustaceans, as well as berries, leaves and seeds, taken with a run-stop-peck technique.

Behaviour

A strong migrant that gathers in flocks before migrating and may fly at great height. Many wintering birds defend individual territories and show strong site fidelity. It nests in a scrape sheltered by vegetation, usually laying four eggs, and both parents incubate and care for the young.

Sources

Photo: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pluvialis fulva -Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska, USA-8.jpg

Sound: Jochem Verweij, XC930655, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/930655

Text: Wikipedia (English) + GBIF regional observations + Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0; GBIF occurrence data; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_golden_plover

See also