Pacific Golden-Plover

The Pacific Golden-Plover is a sleek, regal-looking creature. Every aspect of these birds is fascinating, especially their distinctively speckled plumage. The contrast of their black bodies and yellowbacks gives them a beautiful, striking appearance.

About Pacific Golden-Plovers

These birds also have legendary roles in history! According to many, their routes were tracked by migrating Polynesians, leading them to Hawaii. Today, a large proportion of their sightings and studies have been in Hawaii.

Historically, they have been used for a variety of uses by humans. They have been hunted and eaten as game seasonally. Larger Pacific Golden-Plovers have also been used as sources for oil to burn in oil lamps. These birds have played a major role in human survival and the development of civilizations.

Now that we have introduced you to these regal birds, let us not waste any more time in getting to know them. In this blog, you will learn the following about Pacific Golden-Plovers:

● Pacific Golden-Plover Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Pacific Golden-Plover Size, Eating behavior, Habitat
● Pacific Golden-Plover Range and Migration, Nesting

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Pacific Golden-Plover Color Pattern

Pacific Golden-Plovers have black underparts with thin white linings along their flanks. This is especially distinct in their summer plumage. Their vents are mostly white with a scattered black pattern. They have long, yellow legs and brownish-gray underwings. Their wings are distinctly longer than their tails.

Upon hatching their natal down is well developed. Their crowns and backs are primarily yellowish, spotted with fine black markings, save for their crown and black malar stripes. The yellowish hue is most distinct on the natal heads, napes, and throats.

You can see their juvenile plumage mainly in the months between July and October. The feathering is more even than the definitive basic plumage, likely due to the lack of wear. Their crowns, mantles, backs, scapulars, and tertials are dark grayish brown, and the feathers have an outline of bright yellow. Pacific Golden-Plover rectrices are grayish brown with tiny yellow spots. Their chins are whitish and their chests are pale brown and spotted with a darker shade of brown. The sexes are similar in plumage, except for minor differences in their rectrices.

Description and Identification

Pacific Golden-Plovers are medium-size Plovers. They bear great resemblance to their relatives, American Golden-Plovers. Their ranges also overlap quite often, making it considerably difficult for us to differentiate the two. The following features will help you distinguish one from the other.

Pacific Golden-Plovers are usually smaller in length than American Golden-Plovers. The flattened wings of the former are shorter than 6.89 inches, and in the latter, they are longer than 7.08 inches. Pacifics usually have longer bills and tarsi, with a more exposed tibia than the American Golden-Plovers. Pacifics are also less feathered proximally, which gives them the appearance of long legs.

Throughout plumages, Pacific Golden-Plovers have bright yellow markings on their dark grayish-brown upperparts. In contrast to this, American Golden-Plovers have less distinct markings and are less colorful.

There are major differentiating factors in the interspecific differences in alternating plumages during spring and part of the summer. For example, the extension of primary feather tips beyond the folded wings’ longest tertials- the Pacific Golden-Plovers typically see 2-3 tips extend, where the Americans see 4-5 tip extensions. Another important feature to note is their primary tip projection- Pacifics have a projection of up to 0.35 inches, whereas Americans have a projection of up to 0.9 inches.

Pacific Golden-Plover Song

During the breeding season, Pacific Golden-Plovers have a distinct repetitive call. This is emitted during the Butterfly Display and differs majorly from that of the American Golden-Plovers. This call is an abrupt, two-syllable phrase. “Tink, tdlink, tudling, toojick and ktoodle” are some common descriptions of the repetitive call.

Also given during breeding season is the Complex Whistle. This is also called a “long call” or “trilling song”. It is a musical call, given mainly by males while they descend to the ground, along with head pumping. The females may echo their calls with mirroring head-pumping. You can hear this call during inter and intraspecific chases or territorial fights and displays. It also occurs during the butterfly display. The complex whistle sounds like a two syllabled “wit-weeyou-wit”, and more complex versions include “tsee-witwit-tsee”, “ka-sweeoowit” and
“kloo tswit-tswit kloo”.

The alarm call alerts fellow Golden-Plovers or to distract predators and intruders. This call varies minorly between species of Golden-Plovers. Pacific Golden-Plovers let out a call resembling “peee” that can vary in length. If the threat prolongs, they shift to a more alarming “deedleek” sound, or sometimes a “pfeeb” sound. These calls are let out by both sexes but have minor variations.

Aggression calls among the Pacific Golden-Plovers sound like a chattering, melodic “derederederede”. Courtship calls are a soft “teeree teepee”, followed by sporadic “pk teepee pk”.

Adult pairs communicate with each other by emitting subtle, undetected calls. Both members give out very soft “pfeeb” or “peee” calls during activities such as foraging and preparation for laying eggs.

Pacific Golden-Plover Size

The average length for both sexes is 9.1-10.2 inches, and the average weight is 3.6-3.8 ounces. The sexes were initially thought to be the same size, but a more recent study tells us that there is a marginal difference between them. On average, females are smaller than males. These differences are usually of less than a millimeter, so one might face difficulty in telling them apart.

Pacific Golden-Plover Behavior

These birds typically locomote by walking and running. While roosting, they often stand on one leg. They also do this while loading. If they are disturbed while standing on one leg, they hop away from the disturbance on the same leg for a considerable distance before switching to running on both legs. They do not locomote on elevated perches, except for certain places in tundra habitats or branches in Hawaii.

These birds can fly swiftly and extendedly, and maintain high speeds. In fact, they are “high-speed champions” among their shorebird family. Their average ground speed is 50 kph, with a notably high variation value.

These birds are not aquatic and do not swim. In certain geolocator studies, there was no evidence of their contact with seawater during migration. This is true of all Golden-Plovers. If you saw a Pacific Golden-Plover on the surface of the ocean, it would be a safe bet to say that they were forced to because of extreme tiredness, low visibility, or injury.

As for self-maintenance, these birds usually preen and stretch along with long sessions of loafing. As mentioned before, they do so while standing on one leg. They scratch their heads by putting their legs over their lowered wings. To bathe, they flap their wings vigorously while their bodies are under shallow water. There have been observations of these birds in Hawaii bathing on the shallow edges of swimming pools. They do not typically bathe in their nesting grounds.

During migration, overwintering birds sleep in installments during daylight hours. Their posture while sleeping can alternate between squatting or standing on one leg, with their heads resting on their shoulders or with their heads turned and their bills tucked under their scapulars.

Pacific Golden-Plover Diet

Pacific Golden-Plovers have a diet consisting primarily of insects, mollusks, crustaceans, and some berries. On their breeding territories, they feed majorly on insects consisting of different species of beetles and flies. They enjoy berries and small fruit.

In open grounds during migration, they enjoy a vast variety of insects that include grasshoppers, caterpillars, and some arthropods. On shores, they can also feed on small crustaceans and mollusks whilst migrating. Their foraging behavior is not unique they walk or run for short distances, pause and peck at the ground once they have spotted something they might like to eat.

Pacific Golden-Plover Habitat

Pacific Golden-Plovers gravitate towards dry regions in the tundra, coastal areas, fields with short grass, prairies, plowed land, salt marshes, beaches, and open sandflats, and mudflats. They also live in manmade habitats such as golf courses, playing fields, and airfields. Pacific Golden-Plovers do not inhabit the coastline but regions on the periphery of landmasses attract them. They breed almost exclusively in dry patches of their habitats.

Their juveniles are likely to be on surfaces of mud by inland waters and tidal flat habitats. These birds roost and feed in the same areas, especially on exposed sandy or rocky areas. Where they do not find areas to dedicate to roost, they make do with roofs of buildings. They roost at heights of up to 8202 feet in Hawaii!

Range and Migration

Pacific Golden-Plovers make some of the longest migrations in the world! They often take extensive flights over the water without even a single break. Annually, they travel from their breeding grounds in the tundras to overwintering grounds. Their overwintering grounds are mostly in Oceania and Southeast Asia. They migrate following the coastal, transoceanic, and transcontinental routes. Their fall migrations are extensive and prolonged because the juveniles depart the breeding territories much later than the adults. Nonbreeding birds typically leave 2 to 4 weeks
before the breeding birds, who depart in late August to early September.

Pacific Golden-Plover Lifecycle

These birds have an average lifespan of 15 years, with the longest lifespan of a Pacific Golden-Plover was 21 years and 3 months. Both parents remain with their young ones through their chick stage, and one or both abandon the young ones as they acquire flight capabilities. Females are usually the first to desert. The chicks usually fledge at 26-28 days after hatching.

Nesting

Males mostly build the nests. The males build the nest cups by scraping the ground with their feet and rubbing the indentations with their breasts. They also stand in and next to the scraped area and toss pieces of lichen into the cup, alternatively over each shoulder. The male completes the final nest a few days after the pairs have initiated their pairing rituals, and the process of egg-laying begins from mid-May to late June. Later clutches are typically laid to replace the original clutches for a variety of reasons.

Lichens line the nest, they can also contain dry grass, willow leaves, and even pebbles and small sticks. There is a considerable degree of variation between individuals and habitats. The nests of these Golden-Plovers in the Seward Peninsula usually has thick linings.

The eggs take the shape of ovate pyriform, and the narrow ends of the 4 eggs in a clutch fit snugly in the nest cups. Once they lay the eggs, they allow just enough space for the incubating bird to brood.

Anatomy of a Pacific Golden-Plover

Pacific Golden-Plovers are medium-size shorebirds, members of the Plover family. They have longer legs than many of their Golden-Plover relatives, along with slightly longer bills, tibia, and less proximal feathering. They have slender necks that curve to moderately rounded chests and sharp bills.

Final Thoughts

Now that you have learned so much about these wonderful birds, I am sure that you are fascinated to spot one yourself. Luckily, they are not endangered or of any conservation-related concern! This is because most of their breeding ranges remain largely unexplored by humans, and so they remain intact.

However, as climate change progresses, the ocean is likely to recede. This means that their coastline habitats will suffer. This needs to be further researched. Additionally, we need to study this species individually. Much of the information we have on them is based on the studies done on other species of Golden-Plovers.

Ornithology

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Bird Watching Binoculars for IdentifyingPacific Golden-Plovers

The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Pacific Golden-Plovers are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

Pacific Golden-Plover Stickers

Stickers are a great way for you to display your love for bird watching and the Pacific Golden-Plover. We sell a monthly subscription sticker pack. The sticker packs have 12 bird stickers. These sticker packs will help your kids learn new birds every month.

Bird Feeders For Pacific Golden-Plovers

There are many types of bird feeders. Bird feeders are a great addition to your backyard. Bird feeders will increase the chances of attracting birds drastically. Both kids and adults will have a great time watching birds eat at these bird feeders. There are a wide variety of bird feeders on the market and it is important to find the best fit for you and your backyard.

Bird HousesFor Pacific Golden-Plovers

There are many types of bird houses. Building a bird house is always fun but can be frustrating. Getting a bird house for kids to watch birds grow is always fun. If you spend a little extra money on bird houses, it will be well worth every penny and they’ll look great.