Kentish Plover, 3/30/2012

This time I visited a sandbank area in Bali, New Taipei City. The sandbank area is wide and big. When I was walking in the sandbank area, I didn't notice there is a group of shallow water pools on my left hand side, not far way. All I did was looking around at the far horizon searching for birds and found no birds at all. Disappointed but refused to give up, I started to look carefully into the nearby shallow water pool area. Bingo! Birds were there. Why didn't I see them earlier? A flock of Dunlins were busy eating there. Quickly I took some pictures of them, and shifted my focus from far horizon to the nearer ground. Guess what? Birds were all there on the ground. First I saw a Kentish Plover, and mistook it as Little Ringed Plover until I photographed and enlarged it to take a look. I've never photographed Kentish Plover before, but I used to view their pictures on internet. From then on, I am able to see many moving objects on the ground which I didn't notice earlier. Waterfowls such as Kentish Plovers and Dunlins have great camouflages, which successfully fooled me earlier. If they stand still, you won't find them if you don't look carefully. But they couldn't fool me any more then. I saw a large flocks of birds spreading out on the ground.

Most of the Kentish Plovers in Taiwan are wintering birds. Only part of them are Taiwan local birds. They look very much like Little Ringed Plovers, but there is a gap on the black ring around their neck and does not form a complete ring as the Little Ringed Plovers do. They won't have golden eyering either during breeding season as the Little Ringed Plovers do.











video recorded on 3/30/2012 at Bali District, New Taipei City

Chinese name:	東方環頸鴴
English name:	Kentish Plover
Nickname:
Scientific name:	Charadrius alexandrinus
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Charadriidae
Species status:	species
Conservation status:	Least Concern
Migration status:	Winter migratory bird in Taiwan. Some has become Taiwan local species.
Frequency of appearance:	Common in Taiwan
Foods:	Insects, mollusks
Habitat:	Wetlands
Altitude:	Low altitude
Behavior:	Appear alone or in flocks
Characteristics:	General Characteristics: Wing and back are mostly light brown. Head top is light brown, with horizontal black stripe above forehead. Nape is milky yellow. Neck, breast and belly are white. Bill is black. Feet are grayish black. There is a black ring around the neck, but the ring has an open and does not form a complete ring as the Little Ringed Plovers do. And they won't have golden eyering during breeding season as the Little Ringed Plovers do.
Breeding places:	Europe, Asia and Northern part of North America. There are five Subspecies
Migration destinations:	Wintering in Central and North Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and South America
Time photographed:	3/30/2012
Location found:	Bali District, New Taipei City
Sources:	Internet
Notes: