Greater sand plover

Appearance

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.

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.

Naming

The spelling is commonly given as "greater sandplover" or "greater sand-plover", but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "Greater Sand Plover". The genus name "Charadrius" is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek "kharadrios" a bird found in ravines and river valleys. The specific "leschenaultii" commemorates the French botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour.

Distribution

It is a rare vagrant in western Europe, where it has been recorded as far west as Great Britain, France and Iceland. It has been spotted twice in North America, the most recent being on May 14, 2009, in Jacksonville, Florida.

There are three subspecies: The nominate, "C. l. columbinus" and "C. l. scythicus". The last was known as "C. l. crassirostris" until it was established that this name is pre-occupied by a subspecies of Wilson's plover, "C. w. crassirostris".

Behavior

Its flight call is a soft trill.

Food

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.