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American Golden Plover : American Golden Plover Tuliigaq If I were to be reincarnated as a bird, I would want to be an American golden plover. For every fall at migration time, I would get to travel from Alaska to eastern Canada to see my mother and sister, then down to Argentina and Bolivia to visit my friends there. In spring, I could happily travel back to Alaska to see all of my friends in the Lower Yukon- Kuskokwim Delta. I could do all of this travel free of charge, and get a lot of exercise to boot. Speaking of the Delta, the Yupik people have a number of interesting names for this bird. Some are onomatopoeic (that is, they are given the name of their song or call), such as "tuusiik," "tuuyik," and "tuliigaq," but others have meanings that describe unique characteristics. "Tevatevaaq," for example, probably describes the way the bird holds its wings above its back after it lands. And since "ciilmak" also refers to the black turnstone, it possibly relates to the way both birds find their food. All of the Yupik names for the golden plover are also used to describe the black-bellied plover, which even in the western world was long ago thought to be the same bird. Today they both have separate scientific names, but if you take a close look at a color picture of the two birds, you'll see why even Yupik elders used to call both species by the same name. If you want total confusion, though, read the list of English names for the golden plover at the end of this article. No wonder, scientists decided on a universal Latin name for the bird, Pluvialis dominica, which literally means "rainy dominican." The species name, dominica, refers to Santo Domingo, which was the early name of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, where the first specimen of this plover was collected. It must have been raining when they shot it. Interesting stuff, eh. But that's enough of names until you get to the bottom of the column. During my spring walks in the tundra at Marshall, on the Bering Sea coast, and between flights near the Bethel airport, golden plovers were yet one more sign that the warm weather was finally here to stay. Their jet black bellies and gold-flecked capes were truly a sight for sore eyes. Even their strident alarm call, "toolee, toolee," or "toosee, toosee," was a pleasure to hear after a long winter devoid of bird song other than that of chickadees, redpolls and grosbeaks (although I did appreciate these). After arriving on their spring nesting grounds in large flocks, golden plovers ardently go about the business of staking out their individual territories and playing the mating game. They build a nest in the tundra lined with mosses, lichens, leaves and grass in which the female lays four well-camouflaged cinnamon-cream colored eggs marked with dark spots. She incubates the eggs by night, and her mate keeps them warm by day. In Alaska, this means one mighty long shift for father, although mother is usually close by to help defend the nest if a hungry jaeger happens to fly by. It takes almost a month for the eggs to hatch and another one for the nestlings to fly for the first time. It is yet another month or more of serious body building for what will be one of the most strenuous migrations in the world of birds. For golden plovers are a champion long-distance migrant. Most Alaskan birds travel in large sweeping flocks to their wintering grounds in South America by first flying southeast across Canada, where they gorge themselves with crowberries, to Labrador and Nova Scotia. From there, they travel south directly over the Atlantic Ocean and Brazil, finally to the pampas of Argentina and Bolivia, where they spend the winter months. They return to Alaska by flying over western South America, Central America, the Mississippi Valley and the Canadian Prairie Provinces. Altogether, they travel nearly 20,000 miles both ways. To accomplish this marathon flight, they have to maintain a constant speed of about 60 mph, which is one fast bird. Since the golden plover travels in such large flocks, its swift speed didn't prevent it from being almost completely wiped out by market hunters during the 19th century. Thanks to conservation laws and education efforts on the part of the American Audubon Society, this lovely bird has come back from the brink of extinction, and, in spite of much habitat loss everywhere, its numbers have rebounded to where once again we can take great pleasure in watching them sail down from the sky, land with upturned wings on the greening tundra, then call "toolee, toolee," "spring, spring!" Those interested in a few other English names for the American golden plover might appreciate these: black-breast; brass- back; bull-head; common plover; field plover; field-bird; frost-bird; golden-back; greenback; green-head; green plover; hawk's eye; lesser golden plover; muddy-belly; muddy-breast; pale-belly; pale breast; pasture-bird; prairie-bird; prairie pigeon; spotted plover; squealer; three-toed plover; three-toes; toad-head; trout-bird; and whistling plover. » List of Yupik Birds

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