Gardening Actions:

Create a place for wildlife
Make your yard a refuge for migratory birds.

Stop migratory birds from hitting your windows
Thousands of birds die each year on their migrations when hitting residential and commercial windows.

Create a haven for hummingbirds
Attract these tiny and colorful migrating birds.

Safe birdfeeding tips
The best food for birds comes from native plants, but if you offer feeders, here are some important tips.

Purchasing Actions:

Join NWF and help migratory birds
Your tax-deductible donation supports NWF's work to protect migratory birds and other imperiled wildlife. We'll acknowledge your gift with a complimentary plush animal. Thank you.

Buy bird-friendly coffee
Many birds spend the winter in South America. Help protect their homes from coffee growers. Purchasing this coffee also supports NWF.

Migration Distance
20,000 miles

Migration Route and Stopover Sites
In late summer, the American golden-plovers fly from the eastern Arctic and gather in eastern Canada, where they fatten on insects, crowberries and other small fruit. They then set off on their nonstop flight over the ocean to the northern coast of South America. This part of their journey is about 2,500 miles and can take more than two full days. Once in South America, they rest and feed and then fly further south to their wintering grounds on the pampas of central Argentina and in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. In the spring, the birds return to their breeding grounds in the Arctic, but return home by way of the Great Plains.

Migration Speed
60-100 miles per hour

Migration Height
30-60 feet

Migration Hazards
Golden-plovers are favored prey of the Arctic peregrine falcon during migration. This falcon shares much of the same nesting, wintering grounds and migration routes, except for the long, over-ocean routes to South America.

Bird Size
Less than a foot long, weight 6-9 ounces

Population
200,000

Threats

• Loss of wintering habitat to agriculture

• Exposure to toxic insecticide ingested by grasshoppers

• Threat of habitat loss to oil and gas development in its nesting grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Interesting Facts

• Hunted to the brink of extinction by the beginning of the 20th century.

• Adults will try to lure predators away from the nest by performing distraction displays.

Send an e-card Invite your friends to come learn about this amazing bird.