Tibetan sand plover

Anarhynchus atrifrons (Wagler, 1829)

Tibetan sand plover Immature. Miri, Sarawak, March 2024. Image © Dave Bakewell by Dave Bakewell.

Species information

The three sand plovers (Siberian, Tibetan, and greater) are notoriously difficult birds to identify correctly. Genomic analyses revealed Siberian sand plover to be more closely related to greater sand plover than Tibetan sand plover, requiring the former ‘lesser sand plover’ to be split into two species. All three species are between a banded dotterel and a New Zealand dotterel in size, but all three are plain grey-brown above and white below in non-breeding plumage, compared to more mottled warm brown and often buff or reddish brown underparts of the New Zealand birds. Important characters to separate the three sand plovers include overall size, leg length, bill size and shape, and head shape. Siberian and Tibetan sand plovers are smaller than greater sand plovers, and have a more rounded head shape. The two smaller species are very difficult to separate in non-breeding plumage.

Identification

Any Tibetan sand plovers that reach New Zealand are likely to associate with non-breeding banded dotterels. Compared to non-breeding banded dotterels, all three sand plover species in non-breeding plumage have more grey-and-white plumage tones compared to yellow-and-brown for banded dotterel. Non-breeding Tibetan sand plovers have essentially identical plumage to non-breeding Siberian sand plovers and greater sand plovers, being grey-brown above and white below with a dark partial breast band, and a mainly brown face with a slight pale eyebrow stripe. The underwing is mainly white, and the upperwing has a prominent white wingbar. Male Tibetan sand plover in breeding plumage has pale orange breast band, and has a solid black band across the forehead (where Siberian sand plover and greater sand plover have white patches on the forehead bordered by black). Tibetan sand plover typically has a longer, more slender bill, and has longer legs and shorter wings compared to Siberian sand plover.

Voice: a short, hard kit-kit or kruit-kruit.

Similar species: banded dotterel is similar in size but adults have a thin black band on the lower neck and a chestnut band across the upper breast, these being separated by a band of white. Juvenile banded dotterels are buff coloured cf. greyer sand plovers. New Zealand dotterel is larger and has orange-brown suffused underparts (when breeding) and browner upperparts.

In non-breeding plumage identification is difficult. Greater sand plover has longer legs and the longest, heaviest bill. Compared to Siberian sand plover, Tibetan sand plover is slightly smaller and slimmer, and has a longer, more slender bill, shorter wings and longer legs. Detailed information on the complexities of separating sand plovers is given by Hirschfeld et al. (2000), Garner et al. (2003), Bakewell (2022), and Schweizer et al. (2023).

Distribution and habitat

Tibetan sand plovers breed from eastern Tajikistan east to central China, and south to the Tibetan Plateau, with outlying breeding areas in northwest India and eastern Afghanistan. Between breeding seasons they occur from southern Africa to South-East Asia and the Philippines.

Population

About 480,000 birds, more numerous in the west.

New Zealand records

The only New Zealand record was in in breeding plumage at Big Sand Island, Kaipara Harbour, in April 1999.

Breeding

The nest is a shallow scrape in the ground, and usually 3 eggs are laid.

Behaviour and ecology

Tibetan sand plovers are likely associate with banded dotterels in New Zealand.

Food

Tibetan sand plovers mainly eat polychaete worms when feeding in intertidal habitats; no New Zealand data.

Weblinks

BirdLife factsheet

Wikipedia

http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=879

References

del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J. (eds) 1996. Handbook of birds of the world. Vol. 3, hoatzin to auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Bakewell, D.N. 2022. Identification of Siberian Charadrius [mongolus] mongolus and Tibetan C. [m.] atrifrons sand plovers. BirdingASIA 38: 23–35

Garner, M.; Lewington, I.; Slack, R. 2003. Mongolian and lesser sand plovers: an overview. Birding World 16: 377–385.

Hirschfeld, E.; Rolselaar, C.S.; Shirihai, H. 2000. Identification, taxonomy and distribution of greater and lesser sand ploversBritish Birds 93: 162–189.

Parrish, G.R. 2000. Which subspecies of Mongolian dotterel visit New Zealand? Notornis 47: 125–126.

Schweizer, M.; Bakewell, D.N.; Liu, Y. 2023. Taxonomy, phylogenetic history and identification of the sand plover complex. Dutch Birding 45: 326–335.

Wei, C.; Schweizer.; M.; Tomkovich, P.S.; Arkhipov, V.Y.; Romanov, M.; Martinez, J.; Lin, X.; Halimubieke, N.; Que, P.; Mu, T.; Huang, Q.; Zhang, Z.; Székely, T.; Liu, Y. 2022. Genome-wide data reveal paraphyly in the sand plover complex (Charadrius mongolus/leschenaultii). Ornithology 139 (10 pp): https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukab085

Recommended citation

Miskelly, C.M. & Melville, D.S. 2024. Tibetan sand plover. In Miskelly, C.M. (ed.) New Zealand Birds Onlinewww.nzbirdsonline.org.nz

Breeding and ecology

Tibetan sand plover

No data available.

Identification

Length: 20 cm

Weight: 60 g

A smallish plover which is grey-brown above and white below with a dark partial breast band in non-breeding plumage. The mainly brown face has slight pale eyebrow stripes, the underwing is mainly white, the upperwing has a prominent white wingbar, the short bill is dark, and the long legs are greenish-brown.

Images