European Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria 歐金鴴
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
Oct. 2018, Michelle and Peter Wong. Juvenile.
26-29 cm. Intermediate in size and structure between Grey and Pacific Golden Plovers. Upperpart feathers have dark grey centres with golden buff or whitish notches around the fringes. Extensive black below in breeding plumage, whitish in non-breeding season.
Compared to Pacific Golden Plover is slightly larger and bulkier with relatively larger head, longer neck and shorter legs. Usually has four primary tips clearly visible beyond tertials though the primary projection is shorter.
Oct. 2018, Michelle and Peter Wong. Juvenile.
In flight shows white axillaries and inner part of underwing, and toes do not project beyond the tail tip. Head pattern is relatively plain, lacking the strong capped effect on Pacific Golden Plover. The sparse, pale greyish bars on the flanks indicate this is a juvenile.
Oct. 2015, John and Jemi Holmes. Juvenile.
Upperwing has narrow white wing bar with pale flashes near base of primaries.
VOCALISATIONS
The typical call is a monosyllabic, plaintive, whistled note that is uttered in flight or on the ground when alarmed.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Both records occurred on intertidal mudflats at Mai Po NR.
OCCURRENCE
2015: one on 25 October (Tse 2017).
2018: one from 14 October to 11 November.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds from eastern Greenland and Iceland across northern Eurasia as far as the Khatanga River area, and winters in western Europe and around the Mediterranean (Wiersma et al. 2020). In China it has occurred in Hebei and Shanghai (Liu and Chen 2020); has also occurred in Japan (Brazil 2018).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend increasing.
Brazil, M. 2018. Birds of Japan. Helm, London.
Liu, Y. and Chen, Y. H. 2020. The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Tse, I. W. L. (2017). European Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria at Mai Po Nature Reserve. The first Hong Kong Record. Hong Kong Bird Report 2015: 260-262.
Wiersma, P., G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). European Golden-Plover (Pluvialis apricaria), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.eugplo.01
