Lesser sand plover colony preening individual, Alibaug

The lesser sand plover is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as lesser sand-plover, but the official British Ornithologists’ Union spelling is “lesser sand plover”. t breeds above the tree line in the Himalayas and discontinuously across to bare coastal plains in north-eastern Siberia, with the Mongolian plover in the eastern part of the range; it has also bred in Alaska. It nests in a bare ground scrape, laying three eggs. This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in east Africa, south Asia and Australasia. In all plumages, it is very similar to greater sand plover. Separating the species may be straightforward in mixed wintering flocks on an Indian beach, where the difference in size and structure is obvious. The lesser usually has darker legs, a white forehead, and a more even white wing bar than the greater. This species is classified as Least Concern by IUCN.