Lesser Sand-Plover

The lesser sand plover, also called the Siberian sand plover, is a chunky, long-legged, long-billed plover. Breeding males have grey backs and white underparts, a chestnut breast, forehead and nape, a black eye mask, dark legs and a black bill. It breeds discontinuously across bare coastal plains in north-eastern Siberia, with the Mongolian plover in the eastern part of the range, and has also bred in Alaska (Wikipedia, general species account).

It nests in a bare ground scrape and lays three eggs. It is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in east and south-east Asia and Australia. Separating it from the greater sand plover can be straightforward in mixed wintering flocks, where the difference in size and structure is obvious (Wikipedia, general species account).