Oklahoma Migratory Species Profile: American Golden-Plover

A little smaller than the Black-bellied Plover with a small head and bill, the American Golden-Plover is a High Boreal Forest breeder.

There is a strong male bias to certain breeding territory, to which they will return for many years.

Often migrating with American Avocets and the Back-bellied Plover in the spring, its route of migration is circular, whereby they will return to the breeding grounds by a mainland route.  In the fall, it will fly offshore from the east coast of North America right to its wintering ground in central and southern South America.  However, with juveniles, it is often a different story.

These medium-sized plovers are long-distance migrants travelling between the tundra of Alaska and Canada to as far south as Brazil and Argentina for the winter months.  Not only does it have the largest breeding range of any American bird, they can fly up to 20,000 miles every year, going nonstop over the Atlantic Ocean for as much as 3500 miles.  Less than half a pound, they are the speediest flying shorebird reaching speeds of 60 mph.  In order to survive these grueling flights, they may keep seeds in their digestive tract, much like the effects of timed-release vitamins.

                                                    American Golden-Plover (Right)
                                                          Boomer Lake Park, 2013

Primaries extend well beyond the tail, and they sport a stockier appearance.  Their foraging behavior is a stop-start-run behavior, and then it will relocate elsewhere.  Their unusual capture of prey is with just a single stab of the bill.

Juveniles migrate after the adults, when they come through the Great Plains in late summer to early fall.  Some of the earlier migrating adults will arrive in their southern haunts before the juveniles have even left the tundra.

Expect these birds coming through the Great Plains in the next week to ten days.