Radio-tagged pacific golden-plovers: the hawaii–alaska link, spring destinations, and breeding season survival
2001
Johnson, Oscar W. | Bennett, Alan J. | Alsworth, Leon | Bennett, Laurel A. | Johnson, Patricia M. | Morgart, John R. | Kienholz, Ronald J.
To learn more about mid-Pacific migration, we radio-tagged 40 Pacific Golden-Plovers (Pluvialis fulva) in spring 1999 on their wintering territories in Hawaii. The birds departed in late April, and with aerial monitoring we relocated 10 of them in Alaska. Seven individuals were in or near the Nushagak River lowlands in southwestern Alaska. Nesting Pacific Golden-Plovers were discovered there in 1994 disjunct from the previously known breeding range. The remaining three radio-tagged birds were found north of Bethel on the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta. Our results suggest that breeding is continuous from the Nushagak region west through the uplands north of Bristol Bay to the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta. Thus, plovers wintering in Hawaii apparently nest across a wide area of Alaska. We present a revised Alaska breeding distribution map for the species which differs significantly from AOU Checklist boundaries. The temporary attachment of transmitters (they are shed during summer molting) had no apparent effect on survival within our sample population. Birds that had carried transmitters returned to their winter territories in Hawaii at a rate nearly identical to banded plovers not radio-tagged.
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