European golden plover
{{short description|Species of bird}}
{{speciesbox
| image = Kulík zlatý (Pluvialis apricaria)_a (3949776435).jpg
| image_caption = Adult in breeding plumage
| image2 = Pluvialis apricaria - European Golden Plover XC132878.ogg
|image2_caption = Calls
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Pluvialis
| species = apricaria
| authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)
| synonyms = *Charadrius apricarius {{small|Linnaeus, 1758}}
- Charadrius pluvialis {{small|Linnaeus, 1758}}
| range_map = Pluvialis apricaria map.svg
}}
The European golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria), also known as the Eurasian golden plover, or just the golden plover within Europe, is a relatively large species of plover. This species is similar to two other golden plovers, the American golden plover, Pluvialis dominica, and Pacific golden plover, Pluvialis fulva, which are both slightly smaller, slimmer and longer-legged than European golden plover, and both have grey rather than white axillary (armpit) feathers (visible in flight, and when the bird stretches its wings on the ground).
Taxonomy
The European golden plover was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other plovers in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius apricarius.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1758 | title= Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | volume=1 | edition=10th | pages=150–151 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii | location=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=Latin | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727057 }} The species is now placed in the genus Pluvialis that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson.{{ cite book | last=Brisson | first=Mathurin Jacques | author-link=Mathurin Jacques Brisson | year=1760 | title=Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés | language=French, Latin | at=[https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36010444 Vol. 1, p. 46], [https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36294254 Vol. 5, p. 42] | place=Paris | publisher=Jean-Baptiste Bauche }}{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=July 2021 | title=Buttonquail, thick-knees, sheathbills, plovers, oystercatchers, stilts, painted-snipes, jacanas, Plains-wanderer, seedsnipes | work=IOC World Bird List Version 11.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/buttonquail/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=15 January 2022}} The genus name is Latin and means "relating to rain", from pluvia, "rain". It was believed that golden plovers flocked when rain was imminent.{{Cite CiteSeerX|citeseerx = 10.1.1.695.7104|title = London}} The species name apricaria is Latin and means "to bask in the sun".{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= James A. | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url= https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location = London | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n57 57], 311}} The European golden plover is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
Description
The European golden plover is quite thickset, with its wings only being slightly longer than its tail. Its most distinct feature is a white "s"-shaped band stretching from its forehead to its flanks.{{cite book |title= Birds of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: A Photographic Guide |author=Frédéric Jiguet |author2=Aurélien Audevard |edition= illustrated|publisher= Princeton University Press |year= 2017 |isbn= 978-0-691-17243-9 |page= 155}}
Distribution and habitat
The European golden plover tends to breed in the Arctic tundra and other moorland areas, ranging as far west as Iceland, where they are called Heiðlóa, and as far east as central Siberia; the southernmost breed in Wales and Belarus, after a small breeding population on Dartmoor in southwest England became extinct in about 2010.{{cite book |first1=D. E. |last1=Balmer |first2=S. |last2=Gillings |first3=B. J. |last3=Caffrey |first4=R. L. |last4=Swann |first5=I. S. |last5=Downie |first6=R. J. |last6=Fuller |title=Bird Atlas 2007–11: the breeding and wintering birds of Britain and Ireland |publisher=BTO Books |date=2013 |location=Thetford |isbn=978-1-908581-28-0}}{{Cite book | last=Pearce-Higgins | first=James | editor1-last=Keller | editor1-first=Verena | display-editors=etal | date=2020 | title=European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change | location=Barcelona | publisher=European Bird Census Council and Lynx Edicions | isbn=978-84-16728-38-1 | page=308}}
In winter, it migrates southwest to milder regions of Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from Ireland east to Denmark, and south to the Mediterranean region as far as Algeria, northern Egypt, and the Caspian Sea coast of Iran. It tends to gather in large flocks in open areas, agricultural plains, ploughed land, and short meadows.{{cite book |title= The Handbook of Bird Identification: For Europe and the Western Palearctic |author= Mark Beaman, Steve Madge |edition= illustrated |publisher= A&C Black |year= 2010 |isbn= 978-1-4081-3523-5 |page= 309}}{{cite book |title= National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, National Geographic Field Guide to Birds Series |editor= Jon Lloyd Dunn, Jonathan K. Alderfer |edition= illustrated |publisher= National Geographic Books |year= 2006 |isbn= 978-0-7922-5314-3 |page= 154}} Vagrants have been recorded west to the east coast of Canada (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia), south to Gambia, and east to Pakistan and northern India.{{cite book |title=Shorebirds |first1=Peter |last1=Hayman |first2=John |last2=Marchant |first3=Tony |last3=Prater |year=1986 |publisher=Croom Helm |location=Breckenham, UK |isbn=0-7099-2034-2}}
Behaviour and ecology
{{listen |filename= Pluvialis apricaria - European Golden Plover XC132878.ogg|title= European golden plover call}}
The European golden plover's call is a monosyllabic, slightly descending, melancholic "tuu".
Its flight action is rapid and powerful, with regular wingbeats.
In the United Kingdom, golden plover chicks rely on craneflies for feeding, while in Sweden march flies are more important.{{cite journal |author1=Machín, P.|author2=Fernández-Elipe, J. | author3=Flinks, H. |author4=Laso, M. | author5=Aguirre, J. I. |author6=Klaassen, R. H. G. | year=2017| title=Habitat selection, diet and food availability of European Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria chicks in Swedish Lapland| journal=Ibis| volume=159| pages=657–672| doi=10.1111/ibi.12479 | issue=3| doi-access=free| url=https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/97634053/Mach_n_et_al_2017_Ibis.pdf}}
Status
The European golden plover is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.{{cite web|url=https://beautyofbirds.com/eurasian-golden-plovers/|title=Eurasian Golden Plovers|date=16 September 2021|access-date=4 January 2023|website=beautyofbirds.com}} Overall, the species is secure, being listed by IUCN as Least Concern, but populations on the southern fringe of the breeding range are declining or extinct in several countries, including Britain, Denmark (extinct as a breeding bird), Belgium (extinct as a breeding bird), Poland (extinct as a breeding bird), Germany, and southern Sweden.{{cite web |last1=DOF Birdlife |title=Danmarks Fugle - Hjejle |url=https://dofbasen.dk/danmarksfugle/art/04850 |website=Fakta om Fugle |publisher=Dansk Ornitologisk Forening |access-date=25 July 2024 |language=Danish}} It is most abundant in Iceland, which holds about a third of the global population.
In culture
=Folklore=
The European golden plover spends summers in Iceland, and in Icelandic folklore, the appearance of the first plover in the country means that spring has arrived.{{cite web |url= http://www.icenews.is/2017/03/27/the-golden-plover-has-arrived-indicating-spring-in-iceland/#axzz4caJPwfcl|title= The Golden Plover has arrived, indicating spring in Iceland|last= Jóhannsson|first= K.|date= 27 March 2017|website= icenews.is|publisher= Icenews|access-date= 5 October 2017}} The Icelandic media always covers the first plover sighting, which in 2017, took place on 27 March,{{cite web |url= http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2017/03/27/spring_has_arrived_in_iceland_according_to_folklore/|title= Spring has arrived in Iceland, according to folklore|author= |date= 27 March 2017|website= icelandmonitor.mbl.is|publisher= Iceland Monitor|access-date=5 October 2017}} and in 2020, on 16 March.{{cite web |url=https://grapevine.is/news/2020/03/16/rejoice-spring-has-finally-sprung-the-loa-lands-in-iceland/|title= Rejoice, Spring Has Finally Sprung: The Lóa Lands In Iceland|author= Poppy Askham |date= 16 March 2020|website= grapevine.is|publisher= The Reykjavik Grapevine|access-date=10 April 2020}} The plover is also a symbol of femininity and womanhood in Iceland.{{cite AV media |people=Gísli Marteinn Baldursson |date=7 March 2025 |title=Vikan með Gísla Marteini |url=https://www.ruv.is/sjonvarp/spila/vikan-med-gisla-marteini/37026/b13e1l |trans-title=The Week with Gísli Marteinn |lang=is |location=Reykjavík, Iceland |publisher=RÚV |access-date=15 April 2025|type=television production|time=19:39|quote=Hvað þýðir það að kona taki við? Muntu... þú veist... ég er að hugsa um hluti eins og að mála Valhöll bleika, eða breyta fálkanum yfir í lóu, eða...|trans-quote=What does it mean that a woman is taking over? ... I'm thinking of things like painting the party's headquarters pink, or changing the falcon into a plover, or...}}
=Origin of Guinness World Records=
On 10 November 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Breweries, went on a shooting party in the North Slob, by the River Slaney in County Wexford, Ireland. After missing a shot at a Eurasian golden plover, he became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the red grouse (the former being correct). That evening at Castlebridge House, he realised that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was Europe's fastest game bird. Beaver knew that there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in pubs throughout Ireland, but there was no book in the world with which to settle arguments about records. He realised then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular. A Guinness employee told Sir Hugh of two twin brothers, Norris and Ross McWhirter, who had opened a fact checking agency in London. Sir Hugh interviewed the brothers and, impressed by their prodigious knowledge, commissioned the book. Later, he published the first Guinness World Records which became a best seller within months.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p030890m|title=The Guinness Book of Records, Witness - BBC World Service}}
Gallery
Pluvialis apricaria Norfolk 1.jpg|Winter plumage; November, Norfolk, UK
Chorlitejos dorados en vuelo - Eurasian golden plover - Pluvialis apricaria.jpg|Group in flight, showing the white axillary feathering; December, Delta del Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
Ljungpipare (Pluvialis apricaria) - Ystad-2020.jpg| A large flock in Ystad, Sweden.
Pluvialis apricaria photo.jpg|In Iceland.
Pluvialis apricaria MWNH 0292.JPG|Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden.
References
External links
{{Commons category|Pluvialis apricaria}}
{{Wikispecies|Pluvialis apricaria}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20141202063227/http://aulaenred.ibercaja.es/wp-content/uploads/177_GoldenPloverPapricaria.pdf Ageing and sexing (PDF; 1.4 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze]
- {{BirdLife|22693727|Pluvialis apricaria}}
- {{Avibase|name=Pluvialis apricaria}}
- {{InternetBirdCollection|eurasian-golden-plover-pluvialis-apricaria|Eurasian Golden Plover}}
- {{VIREO|European+golden-plover|European Golden-Plover}}
- {{IUCN_Map|22693727/166262122|Pluvialis apricaria}}
- {{Xeno-canto species|Pluvialis|apricaria|European golden plover}}
- {{field guide birds of the world|Pluvialis apricaria}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q21148}}
{{Authority control}}