Caspian Plover
Anarhynchus asiaticus
Stately plover with a gentle, dovelike expression. Breeding male is stunning, with a white face and belly separated by a broad chestnut patch across the chest. Breeding female is plainer brown, and has a warm rusty-brown patch across the chest. Nonbreeding adults and juveniles are grayish-brown with pale fringes to the feathers of the upperparts, as well as a pale face and belly. Oriental Plover is similar in nonbreeding plumage, but note the white stripe on the wing when Caspian is in flight. Inhabits open areas, near water when breeding and often away from it when wintering. Gives short nasal calls when in flight.
Identification
This plover is slightly larger than ringed plover, and it recalls greater sandplover and lesser sandplover in appearance. It is slimmer and longer-legged than the sandplovers, and has a much stronger white supercilium, and a long thin bill. It also lacks white tail sides and a weak wing bar.<p>Summer males have grey-brown backs and a white face and belly. The breast is chestnut, bordered black below. Other plumages have a grey-brown breast band, although the summer female may show a hint of chestnut. The call is a sharp chip.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Anarhynchus asiaticus
- Authority
- (Pallas, 1773)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Charadriidae
- Genus
- Anarhynchus
Range and habitat
The Caspian plover breeds in western Asia in the area of the Caspian Sea. Its range includes southern Russia, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. Its habitat is steppes, desert verges, saltpans and saline soils amongst sparse shrubby vegetation up to an altitude of about 800 m (2,625 ft). After breeding, it migrates to eastern and southern Africa, going as far as the Zambezi River. Its winter quarters are usually dry grassland, coastal dunes, saltmarshes, dry floodplains and sometimes cultivated land. This plover is a very rare vagrant to western Europe. It is also a rare vagrant to Australia.
- Breeding range
- PAL : temperate inland c Asia: sw Russia, Kazakhstan (except n), Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to nw Xinjiang (nw China)
- Non-breeding range
- inland Kenya to sc Africa
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Olive-chested Flycatcher
Myiophobus cryptoxanthus
Drab and unremarkable flycatcher found in the eastern foothills of the Andes in Ecuador and northern Peru. Note grayish-olive upperparts, dingy white underparts, yellow tinge to the belly, and pale wingbars. Yellow crown stripe is usually concealed. Habitat is a good ID clue: it perches low in grassy clearings with scattered bushes and small trees, and never ventures inside forest. Call is an inflected whistle repeated every few seconds, and song is a short, rising trill.
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