Part 43

In his notes from Australia, Charles Barrett says:

All parts of the Commonwealth receive their quota of golden plover, and in the southern portions of the country the birds are seen about the end of October (early summer). The species is nowhere very plentiful (A. J. Campbell), but I have seen it often, singly, or in small flocks, in different localities, chiefly along the seashore and on swampy land, seeking small shellfish, etc. Sometimes it associates with the black-bellied plover (Squatarola squatarola). In the Capricorn Group I met with it in fair numbers on the Masthead Island beaches. Like other migrants observed among the isles, the plover were fresh arrivals, and each day their numbers increased. They were in poor condition and seemed to be exhausted after their great migratory flight. Some of the specimens taken by collectors in our party still retained some of the breeding plumage; in one example the breast was almost black.

In New South Wales I observed this species on the sand spits at the sea entrance to Wallis Lake in October, 1921. They were wary, but through field glasses we could see them busily seeking for food. In my own State, Victoria, specimens have been taken both in the summer and winter plumage. The birds frequent open grass country, as well as the seashore; in fact, they are more abundant often in country of this class than elsewhere in a district. Frequently, however, they are seen along river banks and on sea beaches, feeding in company with other species.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.--Alaska, Asia, Australia, and Oceania; casual in Europe and on the Pacific coast of North America.

Breeding range.--The Pacific golden plover breed mainly in Siberia but, as mentioned under Pluvialis d. dominica, they range also to western Alaska, where they apparently meet and intergrade with their eastern relatives. The breeding range may be stated as extending north to eastern Siberia (Yenisei River, Cape Chelyuskin, Liakhof Island, Nijni Kolymsk, Cape Baranof, Chaun Bay, and Cape Serdze); and Alaska (Wainwright). East to Alaska (Wainwright, probably Point Hope, probably Cape Blossom, Cape Prince of Wales, Nome, St. Michael, and Igiak Bay). South to Alaska (Igiak Bay); and Siberia (Bering Island, Kamchatka, and the Yenisei River). West to western Siberia (Yenisei River).

Winter range.--The winter range extends north to India, China, Japan, and to Hawaiian Islands (Midway, Kauai, and Maui Islands). East to the Hawaiian Islands (Maui), Polynesia, and New Zealand. South to New Zealand and Tasmania. West to Tasmania, Australia, Melanesia, Java, Borneo, and India.

Migration.--The migration of the Pacific golden plover nesting in Alaska, appears to be entirely oceanic, the flight in both directions being without intermediate stops. Nonbreeding individuals frequently remain all summer in the Hawaiian Islands and at other points in Oceania.

Spring migration.--Early dates of arrival are: China, Soochow, April 18, Shanghai, April 21, and Canton, April 30; Japan, Hakodate, May 7; Siberia, Bering Island, May 15, and Nijni Kolymsk, May 30; and Alaska, St. Michael, May 2, Bethel, May 8, Portage Bay, May 13, Hooper Bay, May 16, and Cape Prince of Wales, May 19.

Fall migration.--Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska, mouth of the Yukon River, October 12, St. Paul Island, October 25, and Attu Island, October 31; and Siberia, Bering Island, October 28.

Casual records.--This species has been reported as a casual from Algeria, Malta, Italy, Spain, Heligoland, Poland, and the British Isles (B. O. U.). In North America, specimens identified as this race, have been collected in British Colombia, Comox, November 2, 3, and 4, 1903, and Masset, August 10, 1920; Washington, Kahlotus, December 19, 1924; Idaho, Lake Chatcolet, October 1, 1923; and Maine, Scarborough, September 11, 1911.

Egg Dates.--Bering Sea coast of Alaska: 15 records, May 23 to July 1; 8 records, June 11 to 27. Siberia: 5 records, June 30 to July 5.

OXYECHUS VOCIFERUS (Linnaeus)

KILLDEER

HABITS

Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend

It may be said of the killdeer that it is probably the most widely distributed and best known of all our shore birds. Unlike most of the group, it is not confined to the borders of lakes and of the sea but is found in meadows, pastures, and dry uplands often many miles from water. Unlike, also, the majority of our shore birds, its sojourn here is not limited to the migration periods, for it breeds and winters throughout a large portion of the United States. It is not of a retiring disposition, and it often makes its presence known by loud calls and cries, to which it owes both its common and scientific names--killdeer and vociferus. Its strikingly marked and handsome plumage makes it very conspicuous when it is in motion, as is nearly always the case. In all these respects it resembles the European lapwing, a resemblance to which both Wilson and Audubon called attention. Wilson (1832) says that “this restless and noisy bird is known to almost every inhabitant of the United States.”

During the latter part of the last century and early in this persecution by shooting brought down the numbers of the killdeer so that in certain parts of the country where it formerly bred it became extremely rare. Thus, Forbush (1925) says:

The killdeer was once a common breeding bird in New England. Early in the present century it became so reduced in numbers that it was believed to have been practically exterminated as a breeding species. * * * Legislation protecting it perpetually has resulted in a gradual increase of the species which is now nesting locally but not uncommonly in the coastal region and river valleys of southern New England.

Other evidence of a similar nature is that of W. J. Brown (1916), who says: “Ten years ago the killdeer was a rare summer resident in the Province of Quebec. During the past five seasons the bird has become very numerous and is now a common breeder.”

The killdeer is one of the most beneficial of birds; it is a delight to the eye as it runs along the field or swiftly flies and skims the ground, and its familiar calls are pleasing. Long may it flourish unharmed by man!

Spring.--The migration of the killdeer is not as marked as is that of other shore birds whose winter station is far removed from the summer breeding grounds, for it breeds in many places where it winters. As a spring migrant it is one of the earliest of shore birds; indeed, there are few land birds that precede it, coming generally in small scattered flocks, which are augmented if the birds loiter on the way. Prof. William Rowan writes of its migration at Edmonton, Alberta:

It is the first wader to come North in the spring and the last to go South in the fall. It may arrive as early as the middle of March and stay till the middle of November. These are remarkable dates for a shore bird in this country, since the lakes remain frozen as a rule till the end of April and exceptionally right into May. Even the rivers may remain solid till the middle of April.

Lynds Jones says that the killdeer, robin, and bluebird arrive about the same time in Ohio. M. P. Skinner writes of the killdeer in the Yellowstone Park that--

Usually this bird arrives on warm mornings, but on one occasion they came on a morning when the thermometer registered below zero, but a few hours later at 10 o’clock there was a sudden change and the temperature shot up above 40° F.

The killdeers migrate by day and also by night, their calls proclaiming them during the darkness.

Courtship.--The most noticeable courtship performances of the killdeer are those that take place in the air--the nuptial flight--but those that occur on the ground, although less often seen, are also spectacular.

Of the courtship in the air Dwight Isely (1912) says that in Kansas “during the first month or six weeks after their arrival killdeers seem to spend a large part of their time in courtship. The male will fly back and forth over a field giving its cry sometimes for over an hour without intermission.”