AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER, PRESQU'ILE PROVINCIAL PARK, BRIGHTON, ON, 9/5/2015

   This plover has been identified as an American Golden Plover, rather than the similar looking Black-bellied Plover as follows:

• The black on the undertail coverts, rather than the all-white of the Black-bellied Plover.
• The black cap vs. the pale cap of a Black-bellied Plover.

   This plover as partially molted and is migrating.  The American Golden Plover is among the migratory birds that interrupt molt for migration and then resume it at the end of migration.  This plover has one of the longest migratory journeys of any shorebird.  It breeds in the Canadian and Alaskan high Arctic tundra and migrates to central and southern South America for the winter.

   The American Golden Plover is a new species to our Life List, which now stands at 150.