Oriental Plover Anarhynchus veredus Scientific name definitions

22–25.5 cm (1 Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds. An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World. Croom Helm, London, UK. Close ); ca. 95 g; wingspan 46–53 cm. Elegant plover, with creamy-white head and neck, and brown hindcrown; rufous-red breastband with black lower edge; legs yellowish or pinkish (usually brighter than in Caspian Plover (Anarhynchus asiaticus)) (1 Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds. An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World. Croom Helm, London, UK. Close ). Legs and neck relatively longer than in Caspian Plover, which overall is 14% smaller (1 Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds. An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World. Croom Helm, London, UK. Close ) and present species always has broader supercilium and broader black breastband (1 Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds. An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World. Croom Helm, London, UK. Close ). Female has pale brownish breastband without black border; more brown on head with whitish supercilium, forehead, chin and throat. In flight shows no clear wingbar, although some outer greater coverts possess white tips and there can be white on outer webs of inner four primaries (1 Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds. An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World. Croom Helm, London, UK. Close ). Non-breeding adult resembles breeding female, but breastband more diffuse, and face and neck more buff or pale brown; new feathers on upperparts show clear rufous or warm buff fringes. Juvenile as non-breeding adult, with larger and paler buff fringes on upperparts. Latter two plumages might easily be confused with non-breeding lesplo (lesplo) and Greater Sand-Plover (Anarhynchus leschenaultii), both of which are smaller and more compact birds, with narrower breastbands and are usually restricted to coastlines (1 Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds. An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World. Croom Helm, London, UK. Close ).

This species, along with closely related Caspian Plover (Anarhynchus asiaticus) and Mountain Plover (Anarhynchus montanus), sometimes placed in genus Eupoda. Formerly considered conspecific with Caspian Plover. Monotypic.

Southern Siberia (Tuva and southern Transbaikalia) through western, northern, and eastern Mongolia to extreme northeastern China (northern Inner Mongolia and northwestern Heilongjiang). The species winters in northwestern & north-central Australia, and sparsely in southern Australia.

Inhabits arid inland areas, especially stony flats and alongside rivers and salt or freshwater lakes. During its non-breeding season, Oriental Plover occurs on dry open grasslands and sparsely in vegetated inland plains, interspersed with dry bare ground. It is also found in clay-pans, playing fields, lawns, cattle camps, recently burnt fields, bare margins of wetlands, mudflats and sandbanks; often far from water, but possibly roosting on beaches during the day.

Migratory. Oriental Plover departs its breeding grounds in July, males first. Main non-breeding grounds are in northwestern and north-central Australia, and the species is a passage migrant in small numbers through Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore (2 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ), Philippines , New Guinea (3 Tindige, K. (2003). First record of Oriental Plover Charadrius veredus on the northern coast of Irian Jaya (Papua). Kukila. 12: 68. Close ), Melanesia (New Ireland, Bougainville, New Georgia, Rennell, New Caledonia and probably Vanuatu) (4 Dutson, G. (2011). Birds of Melanesia: The Bismarcks, Solomons, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), Micronesia (perhaps regular on Palau in October) (5 Pratt, H. D., M. Falanruw, M. T. Etpison, A. Olsen, D. W. Buden, P. Clement, A. Gupta, H. Ketebengang, Y. P. Yalap, D. R. Herter, D. Klauber, P. Pisano, D. S. Vice, and G. J. Wiles (2010). Noteworthy bird observations from the Caroline and Marshall Islands 1988–2009, including five new records for Micronesia. Western Birds 41(2):70–101. Close ) and southeast Asia (even Andaman and Cocos Is) (1 Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds. An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World. Croom Helm, London, UK. Close ), September–December. The species is a migrant through eastern China from August–September and March–April, where it is very abundant in the Yangtze Valley. It arrives Australia mid September–October, and the scarcity of records between China and non-breeding grounds suggests non-stop flights between these two zones. Oriental Plover has been recorded rather rarely in Indonesia (especially in Maluku) (6 Bishop, K. D. (1992). New and interesting records of birds in Wallacea. Kukila 6(1):8–34. Close , 7 Johnstone, R. E., and S. (B.) van Balen (2013). The birds of the Kai and Tayandu Islands, Maluku region, Indonesia. Western Australian Naturalist 29(1):11–56. Close ), with probably just one record in Lesser Sundas (8 Mees, G. F. (2006). The avifauna of Flores (Lesser Sunda Islands). Zoologische Verhandelingen Leiden 80(3):1–261. Close ), rare on Borneo (where there is just one record from mainland Kalimantan and occasionally recorded in winter) (9 van Balen, S. and Hedges, S. (2000). First sighting of Oriental Plover on mainland Kalimantan. Kukila. 11: 145–146. Close , 10 Mann, C. F. (2008). The Birds of Borneo: An Annotated Checklist. B.O.U. Checklist 23. British Ornithologists’ Union, and British Ornithologists’ Club, Peterborough. Close ), and first recorded in Thailand as recently as 1991 (11 Ogle, D. (1992). Oriental Plover Charadrius veredus: a new species for Thailand. Forktail. 7: 156–157. Close ). In Australia , the species shows erratic movements, apparently in response to rainfall and temperature; occurrence in coastal areas is often associated with droughts or heatwaves. Birds may depart for Asia directly from inland areas, without visiting the coast. Oriental Plover leaves northwestern Australia between February and April, perhaps mostly mid March; it has been reported present in central Mongolia, immediately south of breeding grounds, from late April, but passes through the Malaysian Peninsula between late January and mid May (2 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ), and Maluku as late as early May (7 Johnstone, R. E., and S. (B.) van Balen (2013). The birds of the Kai and Tayandu Islands, Maluku region, Indonesia. Western Australian Naturalist 29(1):11–56. Close ). Vagrants have reached southern Australia (Raoul I, in 1908), New Zealand  (on several occasions (1 Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds. An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World. Croom Helm, London, UK. Close ), including once in June) (12 Beauchamp, A. J., and G. R. Parrish (2007). Wader (Charadriiformes) and royal spoonbill (Platalea regia) use of roosts in Whangarei Harbour and Ruakaka Estuary, Northland, 1973-2000. Notornis 54(1):83–91. Close ), L Baikal (Russia; four records) (13 Mlíkovský, J. (2009). Waterbirds of Lake Baikal, eastern Siberia, Russia. Forktail 25:13–70. Close ), Kazakhstan (May 2009) (14 Wassink, A., Ahmed, R., Bussutil, S. and Salemgareev, A. (2011). Oriental Plover, Franklin’s Gull, Syrian Woodpecker and Masked Shrike new to Kazakhstan. Dutch Birding. 33(4): 239–244. Close ), perhaps Uzbekistan (14 Wassink, A., Ahmed, R., Bussutil, S. and Salemgareev, A. (2011). Oriental Plover, Franklin’s Gull, Syrian Woodpecker and Masked Shrike new to Kazakhstan. Dutch Birding. 33(4): 239–244. Close ), Chagos Is (15 Carr, P. (2015). Birds of the British Indian Ocean Territory, Chagos archipelago, central Indian Ocean. Indian Birds 10(3–4):57–70. Close ), Seychelles (five records, Oct, Nov and Jan) (16 Safford, R. J., and A. F. A. Hawkins, Editors (2013). The Birds of Africa. Volume 8. The Malagasy Region. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ) and, most exceptionally, Greenland (17 Chandler, R. (2009). Shorebirds of the Northern Hemisphere. Christopher Helm, London. Close ), Finland (May 2003) (18 Rannila, V.-P. (2003). The Oriental Plover in Finland – a new Western Palearctic bird. Birding World. 16(5): 209. Close ) and Norway (Jun–Jul 2017) (19 Baines, S. and Gundersen, G. (2017). Oriental Plover on Røst, Norway, in June-July 25117. Dutch Birding. 39(5): 326–329. Close ); the Finnish record curiously coincided with larger than usual numbers on southern Siberian breeding grounds (20 Arkhipov, Y.Y. (2005). Exceptional numbers of Oriental Plovers in southern Siberia in 268683. British Birds. 98(3): 156–157. Close ).

Few data are available. The species takes mainly beetles, but also other insects, such as termites, grasshoppers, and bugs, as well as snails and seeds. It feeds in loose, small parties or flocks of hundreds; often with other waders and waterbirds, foraging visually, making short, swift runs, then abruptly halting to pick prey from the surface of the ground (2 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ). At Eighty Mile Beach, in northwestern Australia, it feeds at night and roosts during the day.

Gives a sharp whistled chip-chip-chip or hweet in flight, a tip when forced to flush (2 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ), as well as trilling calls and a short, piping klink (1 Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater (1986). Shorebirds. An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World. Croom Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Breeding season is April–July. Solitary breeder. Only females tend brood. No further information available.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). The total Oriental Plover population is estimated at 70,000 birds (21 Delaney, S. and D. Scott, Editors (2002). Waterbird Population Estimates. Third edition. Wetlands International Global Series No. 12. Wageningen, the Netherlands. Close , 22 Nebel, S. (2007). Differential migration of shorebirds in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. Emu 107(1):14–18. Close ), of which at least 40,000 winter in Australia, with important sites at: Port Hedland Saltworks, with maximum of 29,900 birds; Eighty Mile Beach with maximum of 18,400 birds; and Roebuck Bay maximum 8700 birds. A total of 14,000 birds were counted on 12.5 km of Eighty Mile Beach in March 1993. In Australia, the species is not immediately threatened due to occupation of sparsely settled areas; there is no information on trends in breeding zone, but human pressure is generally thought to be relatively low. Status and threats on breeding grounds are poorly known, but Oriental Plover is generally considered to be rare in extreme southern Siberia, close to Mongolian border (20 Arkhipov, Y.Y. (2005). Exceptional numbers of Oriental Plovers in southern Siberia in 268683. British Birds. 98(3): 156–157. Close ).