- plover. This word derives from Old French plovier and Latin pluvārius, which mean ‘to do with rain’. The plover is the rain bird because the arrival of migratory flocks often coincides with the autumn rains. Once a delicacy, plovers appear in the Stirling Palace Larder Book of 1597 and an Act of 1555 provides That na poutis [poults, young game birds] pertrik [partridge] pluwer… be slane vnto the feist of Michaelmes.