The American Golden-Plover is a slim, elegant cousin of the Black-bellied Plover and a champion long-distance migrant. In breeding plumage it is beautiful — a black face and underparts framed by a white border, over a back spangled with golden-yellow and black — while fall birds are a browner, golden, streaky gray. Trimmer and smaller-billed than the Black-bellied, it lacks the black wing "armpits," and on migration it favors dry, grassy, and plowed ground more than open mudflats.
Its migration is extraordinary: many American Golden-Plovers fly a great looping route, heading south in fall far out over the Atlantic toward South America and returning north in spring through the interior, a round trip of many thousands of miles. In Michigan they pass through as migrants, gathering on plowed fields, short-grass pastures, sod farms, and sometimes mudflats, where flocks probe and pick for insects and, in fall, berries. Their preference for agricultural fields sets them apart from most of the state's shoreline-loving migrant shorebirds.
Feeds on insects and other invertebrates gleaned from fields, pastures, and mudflats using the run-and-stop plover technique, and takes berries and seeds heavily in fall to fuel its long migration. It often forages on dry, grassy, and plowed ground rather than at the water's edge.
The American Golden-Plover is slimmer with a smaller bill and, in breeding plumage, golden-spangled upperparts and a solid black belly bordered in white. It lacks the black wing "armpits" of the Black-bellied and favors dry fields over mudflats.
Many American Golden-Plovers fly a huge elliptical route — south over the Atlantic toward South America in fall and north through the continental interior in spring — covering many thousands of miles in a round trip.
On plowed fields, short-grass pastures, and sod farms, as well as mudflats, during migration. It favors dry, grassy, agricultural ground more than most migrant shorebirds, which stick to shorelines.
Juveniles are neatly spangled gold and gray above with a dusky wash below and a bold pale eyebrow, quite unlike the spring adult's black face and belly. Fall birds in Michigan fields are usually these.
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