The Tibetan sand plover is a small wader in the plover family of birds, breeds in Pamir Mountains, Tian Shan, Tibetan Plateau and south Mongolia, winters in east and south Africa, south, east and southeast Asia.
Region
Central Asia and Indo-Pacific coasts
Typical Environment
Breeds on the Pamir Mountains, Tian Shan, Tibetan Plateau, and southern Mongolia, favoring open gravelly flats, saline lakeshores, and alpine steppe near water. During migration and winter it occupies sandy beaches, tidal mudflats, estuaries, salt pans, and coastal lagoons. It also uses inland saline wetlands and reservoirs as stopover sites. Roosts on open sand spits or sparsely vegetated shores, often with other small waders.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 5200 m
Climate Zone
Highland
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
The Tibetan sand plover is a small shorebird recently split from the former Lesser Sand Plover complex. It breeds on high-elevation plateaus of Central Asia and undertakes long migrations to winter on coasts and wetlands across East Africa and southern and eastern Asia. It forages with a distinctive run-and-pause technique, snapping prey from the surface. Subtle differences in bill shape and head pattern distinguish it from the closely related Siberian sand plover.
Temperament
alert and active
Flight Pattern
strong flier with rapid wingbeats
Social Behavior
Breeds in dispersed pairs or loose colonies, nesting in shallow scrapes on open ground. Both sexes incubate and tend precocial chicks that leave the nest soon after hatching. Outside the breeding season it forms small to large flocks, often mixing with other plovers and sandpipers on intertidal flats.
Migratory Pattern
Seasonal migrant
Song Description
Vocalizations are sharp, piping whistles and soft trills, often given in series during display flights. Contact calls are short ‘tu-it’ notes used in flight and while foraging. Alarm calls become more insistent near the nest.
Plumage
Breeding adults show a rufous crown and nape, white forehead, black mask and lores, and a variable dark breast band; upperparts are warm brown and underparts mostly white. Non-breeding birds are plainer gray-brown above with a whitish face and faint or broken breast band. Feathers are sleek and smooth, suited to a streamlined shorebird profile.
Diet
Feeds mainly on small invertebrates such as beetles, ants, flies and their larvae, worms, small crustaceans, and occasionally tiny mollusks. It uses a run-and-pause foraging style, visually detecting and picking prey from the surface. On breeding grounds insects dominate the diet; in winter more crustaceans and marine invertebrates are taken. It will probe lightly into soft mud or sand but mostly pecks from the surface.
Preferred Environment
Forages on open, flat substrates with sparse vegetation, including tidal mudflats, sandy beaches, salt pans, and shores of saline or alkaline lakes. During migration it frequents coastal estuaries and sheltered lagoons, and inland wetlands with exposed margins.
