Plovers & Lapwings in California
Our list for California has 5 plovers & lapwings recorded regularly there: 1 resident, 2 winter visitors and 2 passage migrants
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in California in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 5, most common first
Semipalmated PloverCharadrius semipalmatusWinter visitorUncommon17–19 cmRegularly Jul–May
Grey PloverPluvialis squatarolaResidentUncommon27–30 cmRecorded all year
Pacific Golden-PloverPluvialis fulvaWinter visitorRare23–26 cmRegularly Jul–May
American Golden-PloverPluvialis dominicaPassage migrantRare24–28 cmRegularly Aug–Nov
Ringed PloverCharadrius hiaticulaPassage migrantRare17–19 cmRegularly Aug–Sep
Smallest to largest
Length, cm- Semipalmated Plover 17–19 cm
- Ringed Plover 17–19 cm
- Pacific Golden-Plover 23–26 cm
- American Golden-Plover 24–28 cm
- Grey Plover 27–30 cm
Body length, bill to tail. Rare birds in grey.
Data: EOD – eBird Observation Dataset (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), accessed via GBIF.org, CC BY 4.0. Records from 2019–2024, aggregated and filtered by Birdfact. How these lists are made