OzAnimals.com
Australian Wildlife

  Greater Sand Plover (Charadrius leschenaultii)





Greater Sand Plover | Charadrius leschenaultii photo
Greater Sand Plover

Image by Charles Lam - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)







GREATER SAND PLOVER FACTS

Description
The Greater Sand Plover is a small wader. The non breeding plumage is grey above extending down from the shoulder to the chest. There is pale edge to the wing feathers giving a scalloped appearance. The dark eye has horizontal white band through it. The underside is white. Legs are greenish grey and bill is dark. The breeding plumage has reddish brown head cap and chest, with black face. Young birds are similar to non-breeding adults. It is similar to the Lesser Sand Plover but a little larger and has more prominent scalloping pattern in non breeding plumage and in breeding plumage, the reddish chest does not extends as far down as in Greater Sand Plover.

Size
25 cm

Habitat
beaches, estuaries, mudflats, sandbanks

Food
insects, crustaceans, worms

Breeding
nests in a bare scrape on the ground

Range
breeds in Turkey, Central Asia. It migrates East Africa, South Asia and Australasia in non-breeding season. In Australia it is found along beaches of New South Wales, Queensland , Northern Territory and Western Australia

distribution map showing range of Charadrius leschenaultii in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.



Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Charadriidae
Genus:Charadrius
Species:leschenaultii
Common Name:Greater Sand Plover

Relatives in same Genus
  Kentish Plover (C. alexandrinus)
  Inland Dotterel (C. australis)
  Double-banded Plover (C. bicinctus)
  Little Ringed Plover (C. dubius)
  Ringed Plover (C. hiaticula)
  Lesser Sand Plover (C. mongolus)
  Red-capped Plover (C. ruficapillus)