Winter summer plumage (1 Viewer)

I think the attached show Lesser Sand Plovers, but wader ID is not my forte especially when they are in between plumage. Anybody care to confirm or deny
Picture taken outside my accomodation today, Masirah Island, Oman.

They certainly look like Lesser Sands' to me.

Indeed, they are Lesser Sand...

My reaction too based on bill shape. Does anyone else fancy summarising the differences!

I'll take a shot. These look like Charadrius mongolus (Lesser Sand-Plover) in transition from alternate to basic plumage. It is a little easier to tell these apart when they are in alternate plumage where in the zone where the black mask on the face splits and right above the beak the white spot appears to be more triangular in mongolus and rather ovoid (with the long axis vertical) in leschenaultii. Moreover, the alternate mongolus appears to have a crescent-shaped white spot above the black covert line of the mask on the superior ear coverts. The rufous pectoral stripe is present in both mongolus and leschenaultii in alternate plumage but in mongolus it has a tendency to also superiorly extend back into the axillary region. In basic plumage, leschenaultii will tend to conserve the complete pectoral stripe which becomes brown and mongolus tends to have this becoming tendentially incomplete medially on the breast. In basic, the upper ear coverts in mongolus are tendentially beige respect to those more whitish shown in leschenaultii. Leschenaultii is a larger bird by about 1 inch (i.e. 190mm for mongolus and 215 mm for leschenaultii). Leschenaultii on a general conformation comparison has longer legs and a more pronounced (longer) neck, the bill is longer and more massive and the profile of leschenaultii shows a longer blocky type cranium respect to the more rounded mongolus.

And they don't have the Burhinus-like jizz that the Greater I've seen had

I've only seen one of each though, so can't be sure if that is reliable

Michael

Thanks very much everyone, I'll have to see if I can get a shot of a greater sand plover (they're in passage here now), so I can get the differences clear in my minds eye.