European Golden-Plover

The European golden plover is quite thickset, with its wings only being slightly longer than its tail. Its most distinct feature is a white "s"-shaped band stretching from its forehead to its flanks.

The European golden plover tends to breed in the Arctic tundra and other moorland areas, ranging as far west as Iceland, where they are called Heiðlóa, and as far east as central Siberia; the southernmost breed in Wales and Belarus, after a small breeding population on Dartmoor in southwest England became extinct in about 2010. In winter, it migrates southwest to milder regions of Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from Ireland east to Denmark, and south to the Mediterranean region as far as Algeria, northern Egypt, and the Caspian Sea coast of Iran. It tends to gather in large flocks in open areas such as agricultural plains, ploughed land, and short meadows, ranging from lowland plains to subarctic plateaus, typically in flat terrain with moderate vegetation near wetlands. Vagrants have been recorded west to the east coast of Canada (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia), south to Gambia, and east to Pakistan and northern India.

The European golden plover's call is a monosyllabic, slightly descending, melancholic "tuu". Its flight action is rapid and powerful, with regular wingbeats. In the United Kingdom, golden plover chicks rely on craneflies for feeding, while in Sweden march flies are more important.

The European golden plover spends summers in Iceland, and in Icelandic folklore, the appearance of the first plover in the country means that spring has arrived. The Icelandic media always covers the first plover sighting, which in 2017, took place on 27 March, and in 2020, on 16 March. The plover is also a symbol of femininity and womanhood in Iceland.