Lesser Sand Plover
The Lesser Sand Plover (Charadrius mongolus) is a small wader (20cm) in the plover family of birds. It is a chunky plover is long-legged and long-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 dark and the bill black.
I hate to id Waders. LSP species is very similar in plummmage to Great Sand plover which also is a winter visitor to Malaysia. Separating the species may be straightforward in mixed wintering flocks on the beach, where the difference in size and structure is obvious; it is another thing altogether to identify a lone vagrant.
The month of August see the early arrival of a handful at Jeram Selangor. Plenty in Penang. They are quite aggressive to the other smaller waders and amongst them whether playfully or feeding territorial habit.
The Lesser Sand Plover's food is insects, crustaceans and annelid worms, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups. This species takes fewer steps and shorter pauses than the Greater Sand Plover when feeding.
The flight call is a hard trill.
Latest shot at Sg Janggut June 2015
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