Lesser Sand-Plover

The lesser sand plover (now called the Siberian sand plover after the Tibetan form was split off) is a small, chunky, long-legged and long-billed plover. Breeding males have grey backs and white underparts, with a chestnut breast, forehead and nape, a black eye mask, dark legs and a black bill. In all plumages it is very similar to the greater sand plover, though the difference in size and structure is obvious in mixed wintering flocks (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds discontinuously across bare coastal plains in north-eastern Siberia and has also bred in Alaska, nesting in a bare ground scrape with three eggs. It is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in east and south-east Asia and Australia. It takes fewer steps and shorter pauses than the greater sand plover when feeding, and its flight call is a hard trill (Wikipedia, general species account).