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Pluvialis dominica (American
golden plover)
Amerikaanse goue strandkiewiet [Afrikaans]; Amerikaanse
goudplevier [Dutch]; Pluvier bronzé [French]; Amerikanischer
Wanderregenpfeifer [German]; Tarambola-dourada-americana [Portuguese]
Life
> Eukaryotes >
Opisthokonta
> Metazoa (animals) >
Bilateria >
Deuterostomia > Chordata >
Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates) > Gnathostomata (jawed
vertebrates) > Teleostomi (teleost fish) > Osteichthyes (bony fish) > Class:
Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned
fish) > Stegocephalia (terrestrial
vertebrates) > Tetrapoda
(four-legged vertebrates) > Reptiliomorpha > Amniota >
Reptilia (reptiles) >
Romeriida > Diapsida > Archosauromorpha > Archosauria >
Dinosauria
(dinosaurs) > Saurischia > Theropoda (bipedal predatory dinosaurs) >
Coelurosauria > Maniraptora > Aves
(birds) > Order: Charadriiformes
> Family: Charadriidae > Genus: Pluvialis
Distribution and habitat
Breeds in North America, heading south in the non-breeding
season to South America, while it is a vagrant to Europe, New Zealand and
Africa. In southern Africa it has been recorded almost ten times in
the west of the Western Cape and south-western Northern Cape, while rarely
sighted at coastal central Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. It
generally prefers coastal wetlands, especially with dry fringing vegetation,
occasionally moving to sandy beaches and short grass fields; it is more commonly
seen inland than the Pacific golden plover.
Food
Mainly feeds using the typical foraging technique of
plovers, running, stopping then searching for prey, although it occasionally
probes in mud or sand.
References
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Hockey PAR, Dean WRJ and Ryan PG 2005. Roberts - Birds of
southern Africa, VIIth ed. The Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book
Fund, Cape Town.
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