Lesser Sand Plover

Charadrius mongolus (Pallas, 1776)

		adult male female
2012-05-13 Sorbulak lake, Almaty region 2013-05-08 Almaty region	© Antonina Fokina © Antonina Fokina

Description

Lesser Sand Plover is starling-sized bird. Adult male Lesser Sandplover in summer plumage has brownish-grey crown, nape and upperparts. Lores, cheeks, ear covers and rear part of forehead are black. Forehead is white with black median-strip. Chin and throat are white. Craw, breast and flanks are rusty-chestnut; craw is demarcated by narrow black band. Belly and undertail are white. Flight feathers are blackish with white bases of outer webs of inner primaries. Tail feathers are grayish, outer pair is almost white. Female in summer plumage appears similar except her forehead is brownish, craw and breast are dirty-buff. Adults in winter plumage have white forehead, grey-brown lores, cheeks and ear coverts. Upperparts are brown-grey with whitish feather tips. Craw, breast and flanks are brownish-buff with dark spots on craw-flanks. Juvenile birds are similar to winter adults, but white feather on head and breast have yellowish tinge, upperparts feathers have buff fringes. Sizes: wing 120-142, tarsus 30-36, bill 16-19 mm.

Distribution

Three Lesser Sand Plovers (one collected) observed at May 17 1953 near Aralsk on Aral sea shore in flock of Kentish Plover, next one caught on Sorbulak lake at August 01 1977 and two birds observed two days later. Also on Sorbulak four birds recorded at May 13 2002, one female at June 22 2003 together with five Little Ringed Plover, and one male at May 02 2004.

Biology

Little Ringed Plover is accident vagrant. Occurs on salty and fresh lakes with sandy or muddy shores.

Subspecies

References

"Птицы Казахстана" том 2. Алма-Ата, 1962. Э.И.Гаврилов. "Фауна и распространение птиц Казахстана". Алматы, 1999. Gavrilov E. I., Gavrilov A. E. "The Birds of Kazakhstan". Almaty, 2005.