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Pluvialis

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Aves
Subclassis: Carinatae
Infraclassis: Neornithes
Parvclassis: Neognathae
Ordo: Charadriiformes
Subordo: Charadrii
Familia: Charadriidae
Subfamilia: Pluvialinae
Genus: Pluvialis
Species: P. apricaria - P. dominica - P. fulva - P. squatarola

Name

Pluvialis Brisson, 1760

Reference

Ornithologie 1 p.46;5 p.42

Pluvialis is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds. There are four species which breed in the temperate or Arctic Northern Hemisphere.

In breeding plumage, they all have largely black underparts, and golden or silvery upperparts. They have relatively short bills and feed mainly on insects, worms or other invertebrates, depending on habitat, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups. They hunt by sight, rather than by feel as do longer-billed waders.

Species in taxonomic order

Eurasian Golden Plover, Pluvialis apricaria
Pacific Golden Plover, Pluvialis fulva
American Golden Plover, Pluvialis dominica
Grey Plover or Black-bellied Plover, Pluvialis squatarola

The American and Pacific Golden Plovers were formerly considered conspecific (as "Lesser Golden Plover"; Sangster et al., 2002)

References

Hayman, Marchant and Prater, Shorebirds ISBN 0-873403-19-4
Sangster, George; Knox, Alan G.; Helbig, Andreas J. & Parkin, David T. (2002): Taxonomic recommendations for European birds. Ibis 144(1): 153–159. doi:10.1046/j.0019-1019.2001.00026.x PDF fulltext

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Source: Wikipedia. Wikispecies: All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License