American Golden-Plover (Pluvialis dominica), Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area, Cochise County

This basic plumaged adult American Golden-Plover was found at Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area near McNeal by Jesse Fagan on 4 May 2009 and was photographed the same day by Dave Stejskal.

American Golden-Plover is a casual migrant throughout Arizona, but is particularly scarce in Spring. Cochise County has hosted a number of the most recent records of this species, with nearly all of these coming from either Willcox or Whitewater Draw.

A lone Pluvialis plover in basic plumage anywhere can be a bit tricky to identify. Eliminating Black-bellied Plover is fairly straightforward given this bird's thin bill, dark cap, long wings, and relatively long legs, apparent in the photos of the perched bird. The flight shot is the real clincher, though, showing dusky, not black, axillars and a dark rump and tail.  Separating this bird from the very similar Pacific Golden-Plover is much more difficult (see here), bu there is only one record of Pacific for Arizona.   Characters which support the identification of this bird as the expected American Golden-Plover:  very long primary projection with at least three completely exposed primary tips (the fourth is roughly the same length as the longest tertial), tertials that extend less than half way down the tail,  no golden or bright buffy feathering anywhere on the plumage, and legs that do not extend beyond the tail in flight. The call of this bird was also typical of American Golden-Plover, not the rising call of Pacific.

04 May 2009, photos by Dave Stejskal

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Map to Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area:

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