Charadrius leschenaultii
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
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 |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Sandplover sighting in Manama on a given day, based on 24 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 38th most-seen of the 85 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Sandplover in Manama on a given day, against about 10% in February–May, August and November, the lowest months. July has too few records to rate.
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.
2nd of 34
Of the 34 cities where we can rate Greater Sandplover sightings, Manama ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Kuwait City (Kuwait, about 30%).
Same genus: Charadrius
The closest relatives of the Greater Sandplover that you can see in Manama (genus Charadrius, Holarctic Ringed Plovers and Allies) are Kentish Plover (about 50%) and Common Ringed Plover (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Greater Sandplover is recorded against all the birds logged in Manama (24 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.
