The Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva) is a medium-sized plover.

Taxonomy:

Class: Aves

Order: Charadriiformes

Family: Charadriidae

Genus: Pluvialis

Species: P. fulva

Binomial name Pluvialis fulva (Gmelin, 1789)

Distribution:

The Pacific Golden Plover breeds on the Arctic tundra in western Alaska. It winters in South America and islands of the Pacific Ocean to India, Indonesia and Australia. In Australia it is widespread along the coastline. It is migratory and winters in south Asia and Australasia. A few winters in California and Hawaii, USA. This wader is a very rare vagrant to Western Europe.

Physical Characteristics:

The Pacific Golden Plover is a slender upright shorebird (wader), with a rounded head, slim neck, short fine bill and long legs. It has large eyes. In breeding plumage, the underparts from the tail to the chin including the eye are black with white flecking on the tail. The upperparts, crown and wings are golden brown with white and black flecks on the wings. A continuous white flank line separates the upper and underparts, running from above the eye back to the tail, and black flecking is visible under the wing. When not breeding, it has a broad, buff brown to white eyebrow and the upperparts are duller, being golden brown with white spots and the underparts are brown to light grey. Young birds are similar to non-breeding adults but the breast is mottled brownish-yellow and grey-brown and the birds have a light yellow eyebrow. The Pacific Golden Plover is also know as the Eastern, Lesser or Least Golden Plover.

It is similar to two other golden plovers, Eurasian and American. Pacific 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 American Golden Plover, Pluvialis dominica, with which it was once considered conspecific (as "Lesser Golden Plover", see Sangster et al., 2002). 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.

Habitat:

The Pacific Golden Plover is found on muddy, rocky and sandy wetlands, shores, paddocks, saltmarsh, coastal golf courses, estuaries and lagoons.

Diet:

The Pacific Golden Plover eats molluscs, insects, worms, crustaceans, lizards and is known to eat birds' eggs and small fish. Pacific Golden Plovers eat mainly bivalves and other molluscs on their wintering grounds; as well as worms, crustaceans, spiders. During breeding season; berries are important, with snacks of seeds and leaves.

Behavior:

Pacific Golden Plovers find their food mainly by sight (as opposed to probing in the ground with their bills). They forage in a peck-and-run method; running quickly in an upright position, pausing to peck, then running again. Their preferred foraging ground is intertidal mudflats. Gregarious birds, Pacific Golden Plovers migrate, feed and roost in large flocks: usually up to 50, but more at good feeding sites.

Breeding:

The Pacific Golden Plover breeds in Alaska in June and July. Pacific Golden Plovers breed in Siberian tundra and in West Alaska in June-July. Males usually return to the same nest site, even to the same spot. They form monogamous pairs. Relying on their excellent camouflage to avoid predators, they simply nest on the ground. They prefer well-vegetated well-drained tundra, often on hillsides, ridges or raised polygons. The nest is just a shallow scrape lined with lichens. 4 eggs are laid, incubated by both parents (26 days). Soon 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.