Greater Sand-Plover
Anarhynchus leschenaultii
Medium-sized plover with a long hefty bill. Breeding adults have a dark mask and orangish chest, neck, and forehead; females duller than males. Non-breeding birds and immatures are sandy brown above and white below, with a white throat and “eyebrows.” Often confused with Lesser Sand-Plover, and best distinguished when both present; look for larger size, heavier and longer bill, paler legs, and larger-headed appearance. Additionally, unlike some Lesser Sand-Plovers, Greater never has a black boundary around the throat. Breeds in high-elevation areas, where it favors arid, open habitats, sometimes near water. Winters on coastal mudflats and estuaries.
Identification
This chunky plover is long-legged and thick-billed. Breeding males have grey backs and white underparts. The breast, forehead and nape are chestnut, and there is a black eye mask. The female is duller, and winter and juvenile birds lack the chestnut, apart from a hint of rufous on the head. Legs are greenish and the bill black.<p>In all plumages, it is very similar to lesser sand plover, Charadrius mongolus. Separating the species may be straightforward in mixed wintering flocks on an Indian beach, where the difference in size and structure is obvious; it is another thing altogether to identify a lone vagrant to western Europe, where both species are very rare. The problem is compounded in that the Middle Eastern race of the greater sand plover is the most similar to the lesser species.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Anarhynchus leschenaultii
- Authority
- (Lesson, RP, 1826)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Charadriidae
- Genus
- Anarhynchus
Range and habitat
It breeds in the semi-deserts of Turkey and eastwards through Central Asia. It nests in a bare ground scrape. This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in East Africa, South Asia and Australasia. It is a rare vagrant in western Europe, where it has been recorded as far west as Iceland. It has been spotted twice in North America, the most recent being on May 14, 2009, in Jacksonville, Florida.
- Breeding range
- PAL : inland w to ec Asia: Turkey to e Mongolia
- Non-breeding range
- coastal e, s Africa to s Ryukyu Is. (=Nansei Shoto; s Japan), Australia, Melanesia and w Micronesia
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Its food consists of insects, crustaceans and annelid worms, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups.<p>Its flight call is a soft trill.<p>The greater sand plover is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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