These elegant shorebirds are found as often in dry or damp upland areas as they are on mudflats or beaches. The plain brown immature birds of autumn become spangled with black and gold as breeding approaches.

It is an occasional to uncommon migrant in western Oregon (mainly coastal) and locally rare, irregular migrant in eastern Oregon, with most reports at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, in the Klamath Basin (summer) and in Umatilla County.

Hear the call of the American golden-plover

Photo by Mark Peck, Flickr