American Golden-Plover (Pluvialis dominica; "AMGP") are very rare spring migrants in Colorado (West-Central USA). Prior to 1992, only 12 records were recognized. In the last 10 yrs, I personally have seen 2 more in Larimer County. I took these poor-quality "auto-adjusted" photos of a putative AMGP on 6 May 2007 (reported earlier that day by Larry Griffin) through my 15x telescope eyepiece (plus 3 new photos on 7 May) in Weld County in Northeastern Colorado. Given its rarity, I feel that similar species should be ruled out. Two similar species are as yet unrecorded for the state: P. apricaria of Europe (European Golden-Plover) and P. fulva of the Pacific basin (Pacific Golden-Plover). In breeding plumage, bot these species have white vents, compared with the black vent of AMGP. Interestingly, "our bird" has white vent. Closer inspection of the wing morphology supports an identification of Pacific Golden-Plover.

Click on any photo for a larger image. The best photos are in the gallery provided by David Waltman.

Other photos and opinions now available at http://cfo-link.org/plover_comments.php. A feather from this bird was obtained and mitochondrial DNA analysis confirms maternal AMGP parentage. Paternal parentage remains unknown.