The American Golden Plover (Pluvialis dominica) is a medium-sized plover.
Adults are spotted gold and black on the crown, back and wings. Their face and neck are black with a white border; they have a black breast and a dark rump. The legs are black.
It is similar to two other golden plovers, Eurasian and Pacific. American Golden Plover is smaller, slimmer and relatively longer-legged than Eurasian Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria) which also has white axillary (armpit) feathers. It is more similar to Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva) with which it was once considered conspecific (as Lesser Golden Plover). Pacific is slimmer than American, has a shorter primary projection, and longer legs. It is usually yellower on the back.
The breeding habitat of American Golden Plover is arctic tundra from northern Canada and Alaska to Siberia. They nest on the ground in a dry open area.
These birds forage for food on tundra, fields, beaches and tidal flats, usually by sight. They eat insects and crustaceans, also berries.
A comparison of dates and migratory patterns leads to the conclusion that Eskimo Curlews and American Golden Plovers were the most likely shore birds to have attracted the attention of Christopher Columbus to nearby land after 65 days at sea out of sight of land on his first voyage.
Large numbers were shot in the late 1800s and the population has never fully recovered.
Reference
Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater ISBN 0-873403-19-4
External link
Columbus and American Golden Plovers (http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/othrdata/curlew/oceanint.htm)
AmericanGoldenPlover is smaller, slimmer and relatively longer-legged than Eurasian GoldenPlover (Pluvialis apricaria) which also has white axillary (armpit) feathers.
The breeding habitat of AmericanGoldenPlover is arctic tundra from northern Canada and Alaska to Siberia.
A comparison of dates and migratory patterns leads to the conclusion that Eskimo Curlews and AmericanGoldenPlovers were the most likely shore birds to have attracted the attention of Christopher Columbus to nearby land after 65 days at sea out of sight of land on his first voyage.
Golden grain, golden rod, golden maple leaves, and goldenplover all come together; the birds not so yellow, it is true, as they were in the spring, when they gave us only a passing glimpse of their clearer, more intense speckled plumage, but still yellow enough to be in harmony with nature's autumnal color scheme.
Goldenplovers, once so plentiful and confiding that they came near enough to the plough for the farmer's boy to strike and kill with his whip, were sold in the Chicago streets for fifty cents a hundred within the memory of many, and those not the oldest inhabitants.
Plovers' visits depend much on weather, a clear, fine day inviting a long, unbroken flight far out at sea during the autumn migration ; whereas lowering weather, especially an easterly storm, drives the birds to the coast, where, flying low, a warm reception of hot shot usually awaits them from behind blinds.
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