The Caspian Plover (Charadrius asiaticus) is a wader in the plover family of birds.
It breeds on open grassland in central Asia, mainly to the north and east of the Caspian Sea. This bird breeds in loose colonies, with three eggs being laid in a ground nest. These birds migrate south in winter to east Africa, usually still on grassland or arable. This plover is a very rare vagrant in western Europe. It is also a rare vagrant to Australia.
It feeds in a similar way to other plovers picking insects and other small prey mainly from grassland or arable.
This attractive plover is slightly larger than Ringed Plover, and it recalls Greater Sandplover and Lesser Sandplover in appearance. It is slimmer and longer-legged than the sandplovers, and has a much stronger white supercilium, and a long thin bill. It also lacks white tail sides and a weak wing bar.
Summer males have grey-brown backs and a white face and belly. The breast is chestnut, bordered black below. Other plumages have a grey-brown breast band, although the summer female may show a hint of chestnut. The call is a sharp chip.
The Caspian Plover is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
Famous quotes containing the words caspian and/or plover:
“The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea.... Horses eat oats and hay....”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“She had never known before how much the country meant to her. The chirping of the insects in the long grass had been like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)