Pluvianus aegyptius
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The Egyptian plover (Pluvianus aegyptius), also known as the crocodile bird, is a wader, the only member of the genus Pluvianus. It occurs in a band across Sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east and south to parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite the name, it no longer occurs in Egypt. The species was formerly placed with the pratincoles and coursers in the family, Glareolidae, but is now regarded as the sole member of its own monotypic family Pluvianidae.
The species is one of several plovers doubtfully associated with the "trochilus" bird mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus in a supposed cleaning symbiosis with the Nile crocodile. The Egyptian plover was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius aegyptius. Linnaeus based his account on the description by the Swedish naturalist Fredrik Hasselqvist that had been published in 1757. The Egyptian plover is now the only species placed in the genus Pluvianus that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | N'Djamena | 🇹🇩 Chad |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Pairi Daiza | 🇧🇪 Belgium | |
| 3 | Milwaukee County Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Toledo Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Philadelphia Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Ueno Zoo | 🇯🇵 Japan |
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report an Egyptian Plover sighting in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, based on 325 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 23rd most-seen of the 215 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–March and November
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report an Egyptian Plover in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, against about 40% in August and September, the lowest months. Those are among Niokolo-Koba National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 300 mm in August. May–July and October have too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Egyptian Plover sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Niokolo-Koba National Park, in our data
Niokolo-Koba National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Egyptian Plover sightings: about 60% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Charadriiformes
The closest relatives of the Egyptian Plover that you can see in Niokolo-Koba National Park (order Charadriiformes, Shorebirds and Allies) are Common Sandpiper (about 60%), Spur-winged Lapwing (about 60%) and African Wattled Lapwing (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Egyptian Plover is recorded against all the birds logged in Niokolo-Koba National Park (325 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.
