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BIRD FACTS |
Description
In Australia mostly seen in non-breeding plumage, which is a brown back. Wings and tail speckled with yellowish brown; underparts are pale brown with darker streaks. It has a distinct whitish eyebrow. Breeding males have a black face and underparts with a white border, separating its undersides from its speckled brown and yellow upperparts. It has longish legs, an upright stance and a short bill. Body size 23 to 26 cm.
A migratory wader that flies to Australia from Siberia and Alaska to escape the northern winter and enjoy the southern summer. Its journey is one of the longest migrations in the world, second only to the Arctic Tern. Usually seen singularly or in small groups, it will gather with huge numbers of other waders at the end of the summer in preparation to depart Australia. It feeds in the intertidal areas and swamp margins for small insects, shellfish, crabs, worms and even small fish. It breeds in the northern hemisphere during the northern summer.
Author credit: Terry Mahney / Charles Darwin University
Habitat
Coastal shorelines including tidal reefs, mudflats, estuaries, salt marshes and sewerage ponds.
Food
Carnivore
Range
Around Australia.
Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Species Description is from Museums Field Guide, Atlas of Living Australia at website at https://lists.ala.org.au Licensed under Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Classification
| Class: | Aves | | Order: | Charadriiformes | | Family: | Charadriidae | | Genus: | Pluvialis | | Species: | fulva | | Common Name: | Pacific Golden Plover |
Relatives in same Genus
Grey Plover (P. squatarola)
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