Oriental Plover
Anarhynchus veredus
Large, long-legged, elegantly slender plover of pastures, grasslands, and lakeshore flats. Breeding male is dashing, with a pale (sometimes white) head and a bright orange chest separated from the white belly by a thick black bar. Females and nonbreeding adults are similarly stately but much duller in plumage, with brown upperparts, buffy brownish face and sides of breast, and a white belly. Dark brown underwing coverts separate Oriental from similar, smaller Caspian Plover, which has pale underwings. Flight call a loud, clipped “chip-chip-chip!”
Identification
Adult male in breeding plumage: white face, throat and fore-crown; grey-brown hind-crown, hind-neck and back; belly white, demarcated with narrow black band and then broad chestnut breast band merging into white throat. Female, juvenile and non-breeding male: generally grey-brown upperparts and white belly; pale face with white streak above eye. Measurements: length 21–25 cm; wingspan 46–53 cm; weight 95 g.Among the red-breasted Charadrius plovers, this bird is relatively large, long-legged and long-winged.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Anarhynchus veredus
- Authority
- (Gould, 1848)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Charadriidae
- Genus
- Anarhynchus
Range and habitat
Breeds in Mongolia, eastern Russia and Manchuria; migrates through eastern China and South-East Asia to Indonesia and northern Australia. Rare in New Guinea; straggler to New Zealand and Europe four times (Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands). The oriental plover breeds in dry steppes, deserts, arid grasslands and saltpans. Its non-breeding habitat includes grasslands, salt-fields and coastal areas.
- Breeding range
- PAL : temperate inland e Asia: s Tuva and s Transbaikalia (n of Mongolia, sc Siberia), Mongolia (except far w, s) and w Inner Mongolia (nc China)
- Non-breeding range
- inland and coastal Indonesian Arch. from Java to Lesser Sundas, s New Guinea and nw to nc Australia
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
About 90% of the oriental plovers that make the long journey south overwinter in Australia and it has been estimated that there may be 160,000 individuals of this species. With a large range and no evidence of significant population decline, this species’ conservation status is rated by the IUCN as being of Least Concern.
- Population trend
- unknown
Photos
Distribution
Other Birds
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Medium-sized antpitta. Typical antpitta shape: plump and short-tailed with long legs, like a grapefruit on stilts. Mostly brown with a brighter cinnamon belly and grayish crown. Note blotchy white mustache stripe. Very similar in appearance to Scaled Antpitta but typically occurs at slightly higher elevations. Moustached has a less pronounced scaly pattern on the upperparts, browner cheeks, and a slower, higher-pitched song without a stutter in the middle than Scaled Antpitta. Fairly rare and local within limited range in the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. Occurs in mossy cloud forest in the lower subtropics from around 1,850–2,000 m. Very rarely seen; typically stays hidden in the dense understory, occasionally hopping onto forest trails at dawn or dusk.
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Bar-bellied Woodpecker
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Small woodpecker found in high elevation Andean forest. Both sexes have olive back and wings, dense barring on underparts, and white stripes on the face. Male has red crown and female has black crown. Similar to Yellow-vented Woodpecker but barring extends to belly and vent. Feeds at all levels in the forest, and sometimes joins mixed-species flocks.
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