Sand Plover?

[Bob Kaufman]

Pardon the low quality photo. This bird was quite far. Taken in Dumaguete

[Nilo Arribas Jr.]

Sept 26, 2011 2:52:26 GMT Bob Kaufman said:

Pardon the low quality photo. This bird was quite far. Taken in Dumaguete

Immature Little-ringed Plover to me Bob. Here's a reference photo in our online guide:

[des]

I'm not convinced Bob's is a Little Ringed, Nilo. I think the bill is too long and especially too deep at the base, the legs are olive rather than yellow or yellowish, the lores don't look dark and there is no sign of a blackish collar, nor an eye-ring.
I think it is a Sand Plover. I think it is more likely to be Greater based on bill length and leg colour but the bill is a bit intermediate in character, and I don't think we can be sure without any size comparison.

[Nilo Arribas Jr.]

Sept 28, 2011 7:44:11 GMT des said:

I'm not convinced Bob's is a Little Ringed, Nilo. I think the bill is too long and especially too deep at the base, the legs are olive rather than yellow or yellowish, the lores don't look dark and there is no sign of a blackish collar, nor an eye-ring.
I think it is a Sand Plover. I think it is more likely to be Greater based on bill length and leg colour but the bill is a bit intermediate in character, and I don't think we can be sure without any size comparison.

Des,
I was with Bob in this trip. Saw birds with similar profile and Little Ringed Plover adults (same size) which lead me to consider this to be one of those immature birds. Hope Bob was able to capture an image with the group.

Bob's Bird


Here's another reference photo of an immature Little Ringed Plover taken in HK:


and

Greater Sand Plover for comparison

[des]

Hi Nilo,
if you saw them side by side with Little Ringed and they were exactly the same size then clearly it isn't Greater Sand Plover. But your second reference photo shows the same features as the first: yellowish legs, dark lores, complete double collar of blackish and white, eye-ring, and an even smaller bill. It is possible that on Bob's bird the brown head feathers are hunched down over the rear collar and the white cheek feathers are obscuring the front of the dark collar, that eye feathers are obscuring the eyering, and that it is a big-billed individual with greener than normal legs.
It is not hard to find Greater Sand Plovers that look very different, and I am not sure what age looks like Bob's bird, but there is one on OBI that is very similar.
Lesser Sand Plovers tend to have blackish legs but can have greener legs. Perhaps it is a particularly small Lesser Sand Plover?

[Nilo Arribas Jr.]

The color of the leg seems to be off for me (much lighter-dark greenish/yellow) but other than that, Lesser (Mongolian) Sand Plover is likely... thanks for pointing out the other features. I'll revisit this when I get home... hopefully I got some group shots to compare.