The family Charadriidae is very large with seventy species listed and is split into subfamilies.

The subfamily Pluvialinae contains four species of the genus Pluvialis

Family: CHARADRIIDAE (Leach 1820)

Subfamily: PLUVIALINAE (MacGillivray 1852) Pt.1 The Tundra Plovers.

Genera: Four species in a single genus Pluvialis – Latin: pluvialis relating to rain (pluvia rain). (Brisson 1760)

  • Europe: European Golden Plover, Grey Plover.
  • Africa: Pacific Golden Plover and Grey Plover.
  • Asia: European Golden Plover, Pacific Golden Plover and Grey Plover.
  • Australasia: Pacific Golden Plover and Grey Plover.
  • North America: American Golden plover, Pacific Golden Plover and Grey Plover.
  • Central and South America: American Golden Plover and Grey Plover.
Four species.

P. s. squatarola (Linnaeus 1758)
P. s. tomkovichi (Engelmoer & Roselaar 1998)
P. s. cynosurae (Thayer & Bangs 1914)

: Previously the American and Pacific Golden plovers were lumped together as subspecies of Lesser Golden Plover as P. fulva fulva and P. f. dominica.

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BirdLife International: IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/03/2020.
del Hoyo, Josep, Andrew Elliot & Jordi Sargatal: Handbook of the Birds of the World – Vol. 3 (1996)
Hayman, Peter, John Marchant & Tony Prater: Shorebirds – An identification guide to the waders of the world (1986)
Jobling, James A.: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names (2010)
Seebohm, Henry: The Geographical Distribution of the Family Charadriidae, or, The Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, and Their Allies (1888)

Click on an image for more information about the individual species.

GREY PLOVER – Least Concern
EUROPEAN GOLDEN PLOVER – Least Concern
AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER – Least Concern
PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER – Least Concern