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The American Golden-Plover annually performs one of the longest migrations of any American bird. In late summer birds from the eastern Arctic gather in eastern Canada, where they fatten on insects, crowberries and other small fruits before beginning their nonstop flight over the ocean to the northern coast of South America, a journey of some 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers). Smaller numbers move southward in the fall across the Great Plains. Relatively few American Golden-Plovers are found along the East Coast of the United States. Once in South America they make another long flight across the vast Amazon Basin, finally arriving at their principal wintering grounds on the pampas of central Argentina and in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. In former times they gathered there in enormous numbers, but heavy shooting in both North and South America took a serious toll, from which the species has not fully recovered. In spring the birds return to the Arctic but at that time they move north by way of the Great Plains.

American Golden-Plover

Hemispheric weekly distribution data from eBird at the Cornell Lab. Seasonal ranges derived from eBird and data from BirdLife International and Audubon. Learn more

Species Migrations

Hemispheric weekly distribution data from eBird at the Cornell Lab. Seasonal ranges derived from eBird and data from BirdLife International and Audubon.