Charadrius leschenaultii
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Sandplover sighting in Daintree National Park on a given day, based on 39 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 130th most-seen of the 208 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Sandplover in Daintree National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to February, the lowest months. That is one of Daintree National Park's wettest months, with about 330 mm of rain against 50 mm in September.
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.
8th of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Greater Sandplover sightings, Daintree National Park ranks 8th at under 5%. The best odds are in Bali Barat National Park (Indonesia, about 20%), Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 20%) and Sundarbans National Park (India, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Greater Sandplover is recorded against all the birds logged in Daintree National Park (39 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
