Charadrius tricollaris
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The three-banded plover, or three-banded sandplover (Charadrius tricollaris, syn.: Thinornis tricollaris), is a small wader. This plover is resident and generally sedentary in much of East Africa, southern Africa and Madagascar. It occurs mainly on inland rivers, pools, lakes and pans, frequenting their exposed shores. This species is often seen as single individuals, but it will form small flocks. It hunts by sight for insects, worms and other invertebrates. Three-banded plovers have a sharp whistled weeet-weet call. Its larger and darker-plumaged sister species, Forbes's plover, replaces it in West Africa and in the moist tropics. The two species have largely allopatric breeding ranges. Both species present a distinctively elongated profile, due to their proportionally long tail and wings.
The adult three-banded plover is 18 cm in length. It has long wings and a very long tail, and therefore looks different from most other small plovers in flight, the exception being the closely related Forbes's plover. The adult three-banded plover has medium brown upperparts, and the underparts are white except for the two black breast bands, separated by a white band, which...
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 3 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 5 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 7 | Antananarivo | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 8 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tierpark Hagenbeck | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Three-Banded Plover sighting in Serengeti National Park on a given day, based on 1,175 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 47th most-seen of the 476 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Three-Banded Plover in Serengeti National Park on a given day, against about 10% in May, the lowest month. That is one of Serengeti National Park's wettest months, with about 140 mm of rain against 5 mm in July.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Three-Banded Plover sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 31
Of the 31 parks where we can rate Three-Banded Plover sightings, Serengeti National Park ranks 13th at about 30%. The best odds are in uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 60%), Semuliki National Park (Uganda, about 60%) and Nairobi National Park (Kenya, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Charadrius
The closest relatives of the Three-Banded Plover that you can see in Serengeti National Park (genus Charadrius, Holarctic Ringed Plovers and Allies) are Kittlitz's Plover (about 20%), Chestnut-Banded Plover (about 10%) and Common Ringed Plover (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Three-Banded Plover is recorded against all the birds logged in Serengeti National Park (1,175 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.
