A medium-sized plover with a distinctive gold and black summer plumage. In winter the black is replaced by buff and white. In breeding plumage this bird is easy to identify with its black face, breast and belly, contrasting wit the paler golden brown upperparts and it really does stand out.

Outside of the breeding season it is not so easy - but its plump body, long and pointed wings and the short stubbly bill are quite distinctive. In winter it is yellowish-brown, chequered black and yellow above and mottled below - whitish over the eye.

26 - 29cm

Heaths and moors. Unlike many other waders they are often gathered inland and in the company of other birds like lapwings

The golden plovers like worms and berries

Melancholy whistling. .Haunting call

These birds lay 3 -4 eggs, buff brown spotted - in a scrape - amongst the grasses on the moorland. After hatching the young stay around the nest for about 4 weeks - they join their parents in large flocks to spend the winter together.

Although there are some resident birds in The Western isles - in winter these golden plovers are joined by immigrants from the North and East with flocks of several thousand not being uncommon. Adults leave their breeding grounds between July-August, followed later by juveniles, and begin to arrive in their wintering areas - here in The Western Isles - mainly between October-November. Icelandic birds often migrate to The Outer Hebrides.

The male golden plovers fly high in the sky with a slow shallow wing action emitting their distinctive sad call.