ODNR Division of Wildlife - A to Z Species Guide - American Golden-plover

American Golden-plover

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One of the spring's most stunning spectacles - if you are lucky enough to catch it - is the mobs of American golden-plovers that stage in freshly turned agricultural fields. Sometimes several hundred will congregate in the otherwise barren fields, and their plaintive cries sometimes mix with those of migrating Lapland longspurs - another Arctic-bound traveler.

American Golden-plover

Pluvialis dominica

At-a-Glance

• Incubation: 26-27 days

• Clutch Size: 4 eggs

• Young Fledge: 22 days after hatching

• Typical Foods: aquatic invertebrates

Description
This quail-sized plover is (when in breeding plumage) golden-brown above, with a black throat, breast, flanks, belly, and undertail coverts. It has a white stripe that runs from the forehead, over the eye, and down the side of the neck and breast. In the winter, it is duller in color.

Habitat and Habits
These birds can be seen on coastal beaches and mudflats or more inland in plowed fields or prairies. American golden-plovers sound similar to black-bellied plovers, but have a one- or two-note whistle, which is higher-pitched and more monotone.

Reproduction and Care of the Young
Plovers breed on tundra. The nest is a shallow depression lined with reindeer moss, usually on a ridge.