American golden plover

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American Golden-Plover
Pluvialis dominica1.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Charadriidae
Genus: Pluvialis
Species:
P. dominica
Binomial name
Pluvialis dominica
(Müller, PLS, 1776)
Pluvialis dominica map.svg
Synonyms

Pluvialis dominica dominica

The American golden-plover (Pluvialis dominica), is a medium-sized plover. The genus name is Latin and means relating to rain, from pluvia, "rain". It was believed that golden plovers flocked when rain was imminent. The species name dominica refers to Santo Domingo, now Hispaniola, in the West Indies. [2]

Contents

Description

American Golden-plover taking flight, showing its dusky back and axillaries Americangoldie39.jpg
American Golden-plover taking flight, showing its dusky back and axillaries

Measurements: [3]

The breeding adult American Golden-plover has a black face, neck, breast, and belly, with a white crown and nape that extends to the side of the breast. The back is mottled black and white with pale, gold spots. The breeding female is similar, but with less black. When in winter plumage , both sexes have grey-brown upperparts, pale grey-brown underparts, and a whitish eyebrow. The head is small, along with the bill. [4]

It is similar to two other Golden-plovers, European and Pacific. The American Golden-plover is smaller, slimmer and relatively longer-legged than European 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 under the name "lesser golden plover". [5] The Pacific golden plover is slimmer than the American species, has a shorter primary projection, and longer legs, and is usually yellower on the back.

Distribution

The breeding habitat of American golden plover is Arctic tundra from northern Canada and Alaska. They nest on the ground in a dry open area. They are migratory and winter in southern South America. They follow an elliptical migration path; northbound birds pass through Central America about January–April [6] [7] and stage in great numbers in places like Illinois before their final push north. In fall, they take a more easterly route, flying mostly over the western Atlantic and Caribbean Sea to the wintering grounds in Patagonia. The bird has one of the longest known migratory routes of over 40,000 km (25,000 mi). Of this, 3,900 km (2,400 mi) is over open ocean where it cannot stop to feed or drink. It does this from body fat stores that it stocks up on prior to the flight. It is a regular vagrant to western Europe.

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 the nearby Americas in early October 1492, after 65 days at sea out of sight of land. [8]

Behavior

Breeding

Scrape nest with four eggs Pluvialis dominica eggs and nest.jpg
Scrape nest with four eggs

This bird uses scrape nests, lining them with lichens, grass, and leaves. At its breeding grounds, it is very territorial, displaying aggressively to neighbors. Some American plovers are also territorial in their wintering grounds. [9]

The American golden plover lays a clutch of four white to buff eggs that are heavily blotched with both black and brown spots. The eggs generally measure around 48 by 33 mm (1+78 by 1+516 in). These eggs are incubated for a period of 26 to 27 days, with the male incubating during the day and the female during the night. The chicks then hatch precocial , leaving the nest within hours and feeding themselves within a day. [9]

Diet

These birds forage for food on tundra, fields, beaches and tidal flats, usually by sight. They eat terrestrial earthworms, terrestrial snails, [10] insects, insect larvae, [10] crustaceans, [4] fish, berries and seeds. [10]

Status

Large numbers were shot in the late 19th century and the population has never fully recovered.

Related Research Articles

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The tundra swan is a small swan of the Holarctic. The two taxa within it are usually regarded as conspecific, but are also sometimes split into two species: Bewick's swan of the Palaearctic and the whistling swan proper of the Nearctic. Birds from eastern Russia are sometimes separated as the subspecies C. c. jankowskii, but this is not widely accepted as distinct, with most authors including them in C. c. bewickii. Tundra swans are sometimes separated in the subgenus Olor together with the other Arctic swan species.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killdeer</span> Shorebird found in the Americas

The killdeer is a large plover found in the Americas. It gets its name from its shrill, two-syllable call, which is often heard. It was described and given its current scientific name in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae. Three subspecies are described. Its upperparts are mostly brown with rufous fringes, the head has patches of white and black, and two black bands cross the breast. The belly and the rest of the breast are white. The nominate subspecies breeds from southeastern Alaska and southern Canada to Mexico. It is seen year-round in the southern half of its breeding range; the subspecies C. v. ternominatus is resident in the West Indies, and C. v. peruvianus inhabits Peru and surrounding South American countries throughout the year. North American breeders winter from their resident range south to Central America, the West Indies, and the northernmost portions of South America.

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The European golden plover, also known as the European golden-plover, Eurasian golden plover, or just the golden plover within Europe, is a relatively large species of plover. This species is similar to two other golden plovers: the American golden plover, Pluvialis dominica, and Pacific golden plover, Pluvialis fulva, which are both smaller, slimmer and relatively longer-legged than European golden plover, and both have grey rather than white axillary feathers.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain plover</span> Species of bird

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References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Pluvialis dominica". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22693740A93420396. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22693740A93420396.en . Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  2. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp.  138, 311. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  3. "American Golden-Plover Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  4. 1 2 Vanner, Michael (2004). The Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Bath, England: Parragon. pp.  123. ISBN   0-75258-734-X.
  5. Reviewed in Sangster, George; Knox, Alan G.; Helbig, Andreas J.; Parkin, David T. (2002). "Taxonomic recommendations for European birds". Ibis . 144 (1): 153–159. doi:10.1046/j.0019-1019.2001.00026.x.
  6. Strewe, Ralf; Navarro, Cristobal (2004). "New and noteworthy records of birds from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region, north-eastern Colombia". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club . 124 (1): 38–51.
  7. Herrera, Néstor; Rivera, Roberto; Ibarra Portillo, Ricardo; Rodríguez, Wilfredo (2006). "Nuevos registros para la avifauna de El Salvador" [New records for the avifauna of El Salvador](PDF). Boletín de la Sociedad Antioqueña de Ornitología (in Spanish and English). 16 (2): 1–19.
  8. Gollop, J.B.; Barry, T.W.; Iversen, E.H. (1986). "Eskimo Curlew - A vanishing species? : The Eskimo Curlew's Year - Introduction to Oceanic Migration". Nature Saskatchewan & United States Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 29 November 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  9. 1 2 Hauber, Mark E. (1 August 2014). The Book of Eggs: A Life-Size Guide to the Eggs of Six Hundred of the World's Bird Species. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 137. ISBN   978-0-226-05781-1.
  10. 1 2 3 "Pluvialis dominica (American golden plover)". Animal Diversity Web .

Further reading