Plovers & Lapwings in United States
Our list for United States has 6 plovers & lapwings recorded regularly there: 1 resident, 2 summer visitors, 1 winter visitor and 2 passage migrants
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in United States in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 6, most common first
Semipalmated PloverCharadrius semipalmatusSummer visitorUncommon17–19 cmRecorded all year
Grey PloverPluvialis squatarolaResidentUncommon27–30 cmRecorded all year
Piping PloverCharadrius melodusSummer visitorUncommon17–18 cmRecorded all year
American Golden-PloverPluvialis dominicaPassage migrantRare24–28 cmRegularly Mar–Nov
Pacific Golden-PloverPluvialis fulvaWinter visitorRare23–26 cmRecorded all year
Northern LapwingVanellus vanellusPassage migrantRare28–31 cmRegularly Dec–Feb
Smallest to largest
Length, cm- Piping Plover 17–18 cm
- Semipalmated Plover 17–19 cm
- Pacific Golden-Plover 23–26 cm
- American Golden-Plover 24–28 cm
- Grey Plover 27–30 cm
- Northern Lapwing 28–31 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