Oriental Plover

Oriental PloverOriental Plover – water

Belonging to the family Charadriidae, the Oriental Plover (Charadrius veredus) is a medium-sized, long-legged plover, also known commonly as the Oriental Dotterel.

During the non-breeding periods, they have a sandy-olive to golden-brown colour to the upperparts of the plumage, with cream-brown coloured forehead and lores (the area of a bird’s face from the base of the bill to the front of the eyes). The crown is darker brown, giving a cap appearance.

The supercilium and sides of the neck are cream (the supercilium is the stripe found on the head that runs from the base of the bird’s beak, above its eye, finishing towards the back of the bird’s head). They have brown ear coverts, a grey-brown wash through the breast and cream underparts from the chin through to the vent. They have a short black bill and pale orange legs.

During breeding season, the male has a cream (sometimes white) to buff-white face and neck, that merges into an chestnut orange-buff upper breast, separated by a narrow black band and white underparts below. The female does not have the black breast band and is browner on the head.

The juveniles plumage is similar to the non-breeding of the species, although they tend to have buff edging to the feathers on the upperparts that give them a mottled appearance.

Breeding in parts of Mongolia and China, they migrate southwards to spend the non-breeding season in places like Indonesia, New Guinea and the northern parts of Australia. They have been spotted in Central Australia (near Alice Springs).

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• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Aves
• Order: Charadriiformes
• Family: Charadriidae
• Genus: Charadrius
• Species: Charadrius veredus

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Oriental PloverOriental Plover – water

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