It was the unwitting cause of the Guinness Book of Records: an argument over whether the European golden plover was the fastest game bird in Europe led the managing director of the Guinness brewery to commission a book that would settle that sort of pub dispute.
From European Golden Plover
Its winter flocks perform coordinated flights of thousands of birds, often mixed with lapwings, wheeling in unison and flashing alternately their dark backs and pale bellies.
From European Golden Plover
It travels as much as 10,000 km between the tundra and the marshes of Europe and Africa.
From Grey Plover
It is one of the most widely distributed wintering waders in the world: it is found in winter from the North Sea to Australia, South Africa and Chile.
From Grey Plover
It feeds at night as well when the tide allows, locating prey by the noise and vibration they make in the mud, and that ability lets it exploit the whole tidal cycle.
From Grey Plover
Its autumn migration includes a non-stop flight of more than four thousand kilometres over the western Atlantic, from north-eastern Canada to northern South America, over open water the whole way.
From American Golden Plover
The outward and return routes are different: in spring it comes back through the interior of the continent, across the Great Plains, forming an enormous elliptical circuit.
From American Golden Plover
It was one of the species decimated by commercial hunting in North America at the end of the nineteenth century, when whole flocks were shot on migration to be sold in city markets.
From American Golden Plover

Ecosystems

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