Pacific Golden Plover

The Pacific Golden Plover, Pluvialis fulva, 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. In winter, the black is lost and the plover then has a yellowish face and breast, and white underparts.

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). Pacific is slimmer than American, has a shorter primary projection, and longer legs.

The breeding habitat of Pacific Golden Plover is arctic tundra from northernmost Asia into western Alaska. They nest on the ground in a dry open area.

They are migratory and winter in south Asia and Australasia. A few winter in California, USA. This wader is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.

These birds forage for food on tundra, fields, beaches and tidal flats, usually by sight. They eat insects and crustaceans, also berries.