Charadrius leschenaultii
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The greater sand plover (Anarhynchus leschenaultii) is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is often given as "greater sandplover" or "greater sand-plover", but the official IOC and British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "Greater Sand Plover". The specific leschenaultii commemorates the French botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour. Like most other species in the genus Anarhynchus, it was until recently included in the genus Charadrius.
It breeds in the semi-deserts of Turkey and eastwards through Central Asia, where it nests in a bare ground scrape. This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in East Africa, South Asia and Australasia. It is a rare vagrant in western Europe, where it has been recorded as far west as Iceland. It has been recorded three times in North America, the most recent being on 13 April 2025 in Biscay Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador. Last previous sighing in NA,14 May 2009 in Jacksonville, Florida.
There are three subspecies: A. l. leschenaultii, the nominate, in the east of the species' range in Mongolia and NW China. Bill intermediate; summer plumage with a weak orange breast... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 3 | Sundarbans National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Cape Range | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Ningaloo Marine Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Rottnest Island | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 8 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 2 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 3 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 4 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Karachi | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | |
| 6 | Quanzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 7 | Davao City | 🇵🇭 Philippines | |
| 8 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Naha | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 10 | Xiamen City | 🇨🇳 China |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Sandplover sighting in Karachi on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 53rd most-seen of the 97 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Sandplover in Karachi on a given day, against under 5% in January and May–June, the lowest months. That is one of Karachi's driest months, with almost no rain against 75 mm in August.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Greater Sandplover sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 34
Of the 34 cities where we can rate Greater Sandplover sightings, Karachi ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kuwait City (Kuwait, about 30%), Manama (Bahrain, about 20%) and Maputo (Mozambique, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Greater Sandplover is recorded against all the birds logged in Karachi (13 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
