European golden plover

European golden plover
	Adult in breeding plumage
	Calls
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Charadriidae
Genus:	Pluvialis
Species:	P. apricaria
Binomial name
	Pluvialis apricaria; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
	Charadrius apricarius Linnaeus, 1758; Charadrius pluvialis Linnaeus, 1758;

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.^[2] The species is now placed in the genus Pluvialis that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson.^[3]^[4] The genus name is Latin and means "relating to rain", from pluvia, "rain". It was believed that golden plovers flocked when rain was imminent.^[5] The species name apricaria is Latin and means "to bask in the sun".^[6] The European golden plover is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.^[4]

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.^[7]

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.^[7]^[8]^[9]

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.^[10]^[11] Vagrants have been recorded west to the east coast of Canada (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia), south to Gambia, and east to Pakistan and northern India.^[12]

Behaviour and ecology

European golden plover call

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The European golden plover's call is a monosyllabic, slightly descending, melancholic "tuu".^[7]^[11]

Its flight action is rapid and powerful, with regular wingbeats.^[10]

In the United Kingdom, golden plover chicks rely on craneflies for feeding, while in Sweden march flies are more important.^[13]

Status

The European golden plover is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.^[14] 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,^[8] Denmark (extinct as a breeding bird), Belgium (extinct as a breeding bird), Poland (extinct as a breeding bird), Germany, and southern Sweden.^[15]^[9] It is most abundant in Iceland, which holds about a third of the global population.^[9]

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.^[16] The Icelandic media always covers the first plover sighting, which in 2017, took place on 27 March,^[17] and in 2020, on 16 March.^[18]

Origin of Guinness World Records

On 10 November 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Breweries,^[19] 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).^[20] 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.^[21]^[22] 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.^[23] 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.^[24]

Gallery

Winter plumage; November, Norfolk, UK
Group in flight, showing the white axillary feathering; December, Delta del Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
A large flock in Ystad, Sweden.
In Iceland.
Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden.

References

^ BirdLife International (2016). "Pluvialis apricaria". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22693727A86551440. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22693727A86551440.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. pp. 150–151.
^ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. Vol. 1, p. 46, Vol. 5, p. 42.
^ ^a ^b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2021). "Buttonquail, thick-knees, sheathbills, plovers, oystercatchers, stilts, painted-snipes, jacanas, Plains-wanderer, seedsnipes". IOC World Bird List Version 11.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
^ "London". CiteSeerX 10.1.1.695.7104.
^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 57, 311. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
^ ^a ^b ^c Frédéric Jiguet; Aurélien Audevard (2017). Birds of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East: A Photographic Guide (illustrated ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-691-17243-9.
^ ^a ^b Balmer, D. E.; Gillings, S.; Caffrey, B. J.; Swann, R. L.; Downie, I. S.; Fuller, R. J. (2013). Bird Atlas 2007–11: the breeding and wintering birds of Britain and Ireland. Thetford: BTO Books. ISBN 978-1-908581-28-0.
^ ^a ^b ^c Pearce-Higgins, James (2020). Keller, Verena; et al. (eds.). European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. Barcelona: European Bird Census Council and Lynx Edicions. p. 308. ISBN 978-84-16728-38-1.
^ ^a ^b Mark Beaman, Steve Madge (2010). The Handbook of Bird Identification: For Europe and the Western Palearctic (illustrated ed.). A&C Black. p. 309. ISBN 978-1-4081-3523-5.
^ ^a ^b Jon Lloyd Dunn, Jonathan K. Alderfer, ed. (2006). National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, National Geographic Field Guide to Birds Series (illustrated ed.). National Geographic Books. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-7922-5314-3.
^ Hayman, Peter; Marchant, John; Prater, Tony (1986). Shorebirds. Breckenham, UK: Croom Helm. ISBN 0-7099-2034-2.
^ Machín, P.; Fernández-Elipe, J.; Flinks, H.; Laso, M.; Aguirre, J. I.; Klaassen, R. H. G. (2017). "Habitat selection, diet and food availability of European Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria chicks in Swedish Lapland". Ibis. 159 (3): 657–672. doi:10.1111/ibi.12479.
^ "Eurasian Golden Plovers". beautyofbirds.com. 16 September 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
^ DOF Birdlife. "Danmarks Fugle - Hjejle". Fakta om Fugle (in Danish). Dansk Ornitologisk Forening. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
^ Jóhannsson, K. (27 March 2017). "The Golden Plover has arrived, indicating spring in Iceland". icenews.is. Icenews. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
^ "Spring has arrived in Iceland, according to folklore". icelandmonitor.mbl.is. Iceland Monitor. 27 March 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
^ Poppy Askham (16 March 2020). "Rejoice, Spring Has Finally Sprung: The Lóa Lands In Iceland". grapevine.is. The Reykjavik Grapevine. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
^ "The History of the Book". Guinness Record Book Collecting. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
^ Davenport, Fionn (2010). Ireland. Lonely Planet. p. 193. ISBN 978-1-74220-350-8.
^ "Early history of Guinness World Records". 2005. p. 2. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007.
^ Cavendish, Richard (August 2005). "The Guinness Book of Records was first published on August 27th, 1955". History Today. 55 (8).
^ Guinness World Records 2005 (50th Anniversary ed.). Guinness. 2004. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-892051-22-6.
^ "The Guinness Book of Records, Witness - BBC World Service".