| [OMAO] | [SKYLARK] |
| [MYNAH] | [CARDINAL] (female and male) |
American golden plover in winter plumage
AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER Pluvialis dominica
(Hawaiian name—kolea)
DESCRIPTION: 10″-11″. A medium sized shore bird with a straight, inch-long bill. Winter plumage—mottled brown spotted with gold; buffy breast. Summer plumage—striking pattern; back spotted with gold, black undersides, and a white band over the forehead and down the sides of the neck and breast. Plovers don their summer colors in April or May before migration and may still retain them when they return in early August. The only shore bird likely to be seen in the interior of either park.
PARK DISTRIBUTION: Winter migrant to the islands. Kilauea—Fairly common locally from August to June. To be seen around Park Headquarters and on the west side of Kilauea Crater or along the Mauna Loa Strip. Haleakala—Common from August to June in open areas both inside and out of the crater.
VOICE: A clear whistle queep, or quee-leép, etc., usually uttered as the bird is flushed.
Like other migrants to Hawaii, golden plovers make a 2,000-mile (one way) flight to and from their breeding grounds in Alaska or Siberia each year. The trip requires about 48 hours, spent mostly over the open ocean. When they arrive in Hawaii in the fall, individuals seem to establish remarkably small territories—one bird may live during its entire stay here in an area not much bigger than a large lawn. Here they will feed on insects and berries until it is time for the annual migration to the north.