American Golden-Plover (Pluvialis dominica), Tweedy Road, Santa Cruz Flats, Pinal County

This American Golden-Plover was discovered and photographed by Allen and Denise Klaiber on 24 October 2008 along Tweedy Road in the Santa Cruz Flats area. 

American Golden-Plover is a casual fall transient. 

This bird shows the typical slim, small-billed, dove-headed look of an American Golden Plover.  It has a prominent supercillium setting off the dark cap that is also typical of this species.  Finally, the primaries project well past the tail whereas the tertials fall well short of the tail, again a characteristic of American Golden-Plover.  Pacific Golden-Plover is a bulkier, bigger billed bird with a plainer face and primaries that do not project as much past the tail and tertials that nearly reach the tail. 

A nice discussion of the ID of this species is presented here.

24 October 2008, photo by Allen and Denise Klaiber