Distribution

Breeding Range

The main breeding range spans from northeastern Manitoba (Churchill region) across most of Nunavut (81 Richards, J. M., and A. J. Gaston (Editors) (2018). Birds of Nunavut. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Close ) and the Northwest Territories, including the major islands of Southampton, Victoria, Banks, Melville, Devon, and much of Baffin. It extends southward through the Yukon Territory (for recent nesting records in southwest Yukon, see Nouvet et al. [82 Nouvet, S., S. Wilson, and K. Martin (2008). Breeding records of the Surfbird, Wandering Tattler, American Golden-Plover, and Upland Sandpiper in the southwest Yukon Territory. Western Birds 39:22–30. Close ]) to the Spatzizi Plateau in north-central British Columbia (83 Campbell, R. W., N. K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, J. M. Cooper, G. W. Kaiser, and M. C. E. McNall (1990). The Birds of British Columbia, Volume 2. Diurnal Birds of Prey Through Woodpeckers. Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, BC, Canada. Close , 84 Davidson, P. J. A., R. J. Cannings, A. R. Couturier, D. Lepage, and C. M. Di Corrado (Editors) (2015). The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of British Columbia, 2008–2012. Bird Studies Canada, Delta, BC, Canada. Close ). In Alaska, it continues through the northern and central regions, including the entire Seward Peninsula, Norton Sound, and the watersheds of the Pikmiktalik and Andreafsky rivers, as well as specific locations like Cape Romanzof (B. McCaffery, personal communication), the Askinuk Mountains (85 Conover, B. (1945). The breeding golden plover of Alaska. Auk 62:568–574. Close ), and Nelson Island (37 Connors, P. G., B. J. McCaffery, and J. L. Maron (1993). Speciation in golden-plovers, Pluvialis dominica and P. fulva: evidence from the breeding grounds. Auk 110:9–20. Close , 86 American Ornithologists' Union (1998). Check-list of North American Birds. 7th edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC, USA. Close ). The American Golden-Plover is sympatric with Pacific Golden-Plover (Pluvialis fulva) over certain areas in western Alaska, especially on the Seward Peninsula.

Small populations nest along the coast of Hudson Bay at Cape Henrietta Maria in northeastern Ontario and near Pen Island at the northernmost tip of Ontario; other localized breeding grounds likely exist in the coastal region between these two widely separated sites (87 Peck, G. K., and R. D. James (1983). Breeding Birds of Ontario: Nidiology and Distribution Volume 1: Nonpasserines. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, Canada. Close , 88 Ross, K., K. Abraham, R. Clay, B. Collins, J. Iron, R. James, D. McLachlin, and R. Weeber (2003). Ontario Shorebird Conservation Plan. Environment Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Close , 89 Cadman, M. D., D. A. Sutherland, G. G. Beck, D. Lepage, and A. R. Couturier (Editors) (2007). Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario 2001–2005. Bird Studies Canada, Environment Canada, Ontario Field Ornithologists, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and Ontario Nature, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Close ). Localized nesting has also been reported in west-central Alberta at Caw Ridge and Sulphur Ridge (90 Robertson, S. (2013). American Golden Plover Discovery! Alberta Wildlifer 24:6–7. Close ), central British Columbia in the Chilcotin region (83 Campbell, R. W., N. K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, J. M. Cooper, G. W. Kaiser, and M. C. E. McNall (1990). The Birds of British Columbia, Volume 2. Diurnal Birds of Prey Through Woodpeckers. Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, BC, Canada. Close , 84 Davidson, P. J. A., R. J. Cannings, A. R. Couturier, D. Lepage, and C. M. Di Corrado (Editors) (2015). The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of British Columbia, 2008–2012. Bird Studies Canada, Delta, BC, Canada. Close ), and in the Lake Clark–Lake Iliamna region, Alaska (91 Bennett, A. J. (1996). Pacific and American Golden-Plovers breeding in southwestern Alaska. Northwestern Naturalist 77:49–51. Close ).

Breeding distribution needs further study and revision. The vast range in Canada (based mostly on 92 Godfrey, W. E. (1986). The Birds of Canada. Revised Edition. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. Close , 31 Byrkjedal, I., and D. B. A. Thompson (1998). Tundra Plovers: The Eurasian, Pacific and American Golden Plovers and Grey Plover. T & AD Poyser Ltd, London, United Kingdom. Close ) traverses many remote and nearly inaccessible regions; thus boundaries are somewhat arbitrary. In Alaska, the range of the American Golden-Plover includes Nunivak Island (85 Conover, B. (1945). The breeding golden plover of Alaska. Auk 62:568–574. Close ) and many high tundra ridges in southwestern and south-central parts of the state, including the Talkeetna Mountains, southern Wrangell Mountains (M. Bronson and P. Bruner, personal communication), and the eastern Wrangell Mountains (93 Sage, B. L. (1975). Recent observations in the Wrangell Mountains, Alaska. Condor 77:206–207. Close ). There are also potential breeding sites on Stuart Island in Norton Sound, Bering Sea (94 Nelson, E. W. (1887). Report upon natural history collections made in Alaska between the years 1877 and 1881. U.S. Signal Service, Arctic Series no. 3, part 1. Birds of Alaska. Close ).

Breeding records of the American Golden-Plover in Chukotka, Far East Russia, including Wrangel Island and Herald Island in the Chukchi Sea (95 Vaurie, C. (1965). The Birds of the Palearctic Fauna, Volume 2: Non-passeriformes. H. F. & G. Witherby, London, UK. Close , 96 Portenko, L. A. (1972a). Birds of the Chukchi Peninsula and Wrangel Island, Volume 1 (in Russian). Nauka, Leningrad, Russia. Close , 97 Tomkovich, P. S. (1988a). American plover in Siberia. In Bulletin of the Working Group on Waders (A. Ya Kondratiev, Editor) [Translated by M. G. Wilson in Wader Study Group Bulletin 55:29–31]. All-Union Ornithological Society and Institute for the Study of Biological Problems of the North. Vladivostock, Russia. pp. 38–39. Close , 98 Tomkovich, P. S., and M. Yu. Soloviev (1988). New records of waders in Chukotskiy Peninsula (in Russian). Zoologicheskii Zhurnal 67:1756–1757. Close , 99 Stishov, M. S., and V. I. Pridatko (1990). American Golden-Plover and Semipalmated Plover on Wrangel Island and Herald Island (in Russian). Vestnik Zoologii 2:82–84. Close , 100 Lappo, E., P. P. Tomkovich, and E. E. Syroechkovskiy (2012). Atlas of breeding waders in the Russian Arctic. UF Ofsetnaya Pechat, Moscow, Russia. Close ) were suggested over many years. However, it wasn't until 2013 that a territorial pair was documented incubating a clutch of four eggs on the Ekvyvatap River delta in northeastern Chukotka (101 Arkhipov, V. Y., T. Noah, S. Koschkar, and F. A. Kondrashov (2013). Birds of Mys Shmidta, north Chukotka, Russia. Forktail 29:25–30. Close , 102 Arkhipov, V. Y., T. Noah, S. Koschkar, and F. A. Kondrashov (2014). Birds of Cape Schmidt and its surroundings (in Russian). Russian Journal of Ornithology 23 (Express issue 1076):3771–3797. Close ), marking the first definitive nesting record for the Palearctic. Another breeding record in Chukotka involved an aberrant situation in which a male American Golden-Plover and a female Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) nested unsuccessfully (103 Taldenkov, I. A. (2006). Record of mixed breeding of American Plover and Gray Plover at northern Chukchi Peninsula (in Russian). Information Materials of the Working Group on Waders 19:39–41. Close ).

Nonbreeding Range

During the non-breeding season, the primary range is on grasslands, coastal and inland wetlands, and farmlands from southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul), Paraguay, southern Bolivia to Chile (to Santiago) and further southward through Uruguay and Argentina (to Cordoba, Mendoza, and Bahia Blanca, with some birds ranging to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (86 American Ornithologists' Union (1998). Check-list of North American Birds. 7th edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC, USA. Close , 104 Minton, C. D. T., T. Piersma, D. E. Blanco, A. J. Baker, and L. G. Benegas (1996). Wader numbers and the use of high tide roosts at the Hemispheric Reserve "Costa Atlantica de Tierra del Fuego," Argentina–January and February 1995. Wader Study Group Bulletin 79:109–114. Close , 105 Blanco, D. E., P. Yorio, P. F. Petracci, and G. Pugnali (2006). Distribution and abundance of non-breeding shorebirds along the coasts of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Waterbirds 29:381–390. Close ). Overwintering has also been reported in north-coastal and inland Brazil (for a list of Important Bird Area overwintering sites in South America, see 106 Clay, R. P., A. J. Lesterhuis, and O. Johnson (2010). Conservation plan for the American Golden-Plover (Pluvialis dominica). Version 1.1. Manomet Center Conservation Science, Manomet, MA, USA. Close ). While Paraguay hosts mostly southbound transients, only small numbers occur in Chile, and records might include misidentified Pacific Golden-Plover.

A few individuals may overwinter in Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana, although late-fall stragglers or early-spring migrants could be misinterpreted as overwintering birds. The American Golden-Plover appears to be only an occasional transient near San Jose del Cabo and La Paz at the southern tip of Baja California (107 Unitt, P. (2001). Some bird observations from Baja California Sur. Monographs in Field Ornithology 3:107–111. Close , 108 Carmona, R., G. Ruiz Campos, and R. Vazquez (2008b). Annotated checklist of shorebirds recorded at Ensenada de La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Wader Study Group Bulletin 115:140–147. Close ), and it is extremely rare elsewhere on the Baja California Peninsula (see 109 Erickson, R. A., and S. N. G. Howell (2001). Birds of the Baja California Peninsula: Status, distribution, and taxonomy. Monographs in Field Ornithology No. 3. American Birding Association, Colorado Springs, CO, USA. Close ). This species' overwintering status along the Pacific Coast is sometimes unclear due to confusion in identifying the American Golden-Plover vs. the Pacific Golden-Plover (see 3 Johnson, O. W., and P. M. Johnson (2004). Morphometric features of Pacific and American Golden-Plovers with comments on field identification. Wader Study Group Bulletin 103:42–49. Close ). TheAmerican Golden-Plover is rare along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S., with most records occurring in Florida (see 110 Paulson, D. R., and D. S. Lee (1992). Wintering of Lesser Golden-Plovers in eastern North America. Journal of Field Ornithology 63:121–128. Close ).

Extralimital Records

There are several casual or accidental records in many locations (24 Cramp, S., and K. E. L. Simmons (1983). The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Volume 3: Waders to Gulls. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , 86 American Ornithologists' Union (1998). Check-list of North American Birds. 7th edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC, USA. Close ). Some extralimital records are probably the result of breeding-ground sympatry and occasional association with the “wrong flock,” such as the American Golden-Plover from the western end of range migrating with the Pacific Golden-Plover, or possibly hybridization (though rare, see 75 Withrow, J. J., and K. Winker (2014). Genetics of a high-latitude cryptic speciation event: American and Pacific Golden-Plovers. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 126:429–442. Close ) is involved. Notable extralimital records include Okinawa, Japan (111 Brazil, M. (1991). The Birds of Japan. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), Honshu, Japan (112 Watanabe, T. (2000). The first record of American Golden Plover Pluvialis dominica from Honshu, Japan. Journal of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology 32:34–36. Close ), New Zealand (6 Marchant, S., and P. J. Higgins, Editors (1993). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 2. Raptors to Lapwings. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. Close , 113 Miskelly, C. M., A. C. Crossland, P. M. Sagar, I. Saville, A. J. D. Tennyson, and E. A. Bell (2015). Vagrant and extra-limital bird records accepted by the Birds New Zealand Records Appraisal Committee 2013–2014. Notornis 62:85–95. Close ), Mauritania (114 Schmaljohann, H., and M. Thoma (2005). First record of American Golden Plover Pluvialis dominica for Mauritania, and its status in western Africa. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 12:158–161. Close ), and the Netherlands, Britain, and Ireland (reviewed in 26 Roselaar, C. S. (1990). Identification and occurrence of American and Pacific golden-plover in the Netherlands. Dutch Birding 12:221–232. Close ; see also annual reports from the British Birds Rarities Committee). Several reports of the American Golden-Plover in Australia were considered unacceptable (6 Marchant, S., and P. J. Higgins, Editors (1993). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 2. Raptors to Lapwings. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. Close ).

Distribution changes are generally correlated with human activity. Small populations of plovers overwinter along the northern coast of Brazil (115 Morrison, R. I. G., and R. K. Ross (1989). Atlas of Neararctic shorebirds on the coast of South America. Volume 1. Canadian Wildlife Service Special Publication. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Close ). Extensive deforestation in Amazonia has forced migrating and overwintering American Golden-Plovers to find new habitats (116 Stotz, D. F., R. O. Bierregaard, M. Cohn-Haft, P. Peterman, and J. Smith (1992). The status of North American migrants in central Amazonian Brazil. Condor 94: 608–621. Close , 53 Sick, H. (1993). Birds in Brazil: A Natural History. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Close ). The species is “abundant in central Brazil until the end of February” (53 Sick, H. (1993). Birds in Brazil: A Natural History. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Close ). Favorable habitats resulting from settlement may account for occasional overwintering in the eastern U.S. (110 Paulson, D. R., and D. S. Lee (1992). Wintering of Lesser Golden-Plovers in eastern North America. Journal of Field Ornithology 63:121–128. Close ). Overwintering populations on the primary range in southern South America are less widely distributed because of habitat loss (106 Clay, R. P., A. J. Lesterhuis, and O. Johnson (2010). Conservation plan for the American Golden-Plover (Pluvialis dominica). Version 1.1. Manomet Center Conservation Science, Manomet, MA, USA. Close , 117 Blanco, D. E., R. Banchs, and P. Canevari (1993). Critical sites for the Eskimo Curlew (Numenius borealis), and other Nearctic grassland shorebirds in Argentina and Uruguay. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, DC, USA. Close ; also see Conservation and Management).