Charadrius leschenaultii ? (1 Viewer)

Charadrius leschenaultii ? (South Sinai, EG)

Can anyone please confirm that these are greater sand plovers - Charadrius leschenaultii ? Took the pics in January while on a trip in Sinai, Egypt - one pic at the Mangrove Channel, the other in Nabq Park. As I'm not familiar with plovers like leschenaultii, you will probably understand my hesitation.

Hi Florin Chirila
Not that i have seen any Sandplovers but i would say they were Lesser Sandplovers
Richard

hi florin,

i think you were right with leschenaultii for all birds in your pics though in the first there is little necessary detail. mongolus has a shorter tibia and a shorter bill than the columbinus race of leschenaultii which winters on a regular basis in egypt. could be that i'm wrong though having only little experience with this sp. pair.

sanatate,

The right hand one is a Greater for me. The top picture and the left one in the bottom could be Lessers but there doesn't seem to be enough to clinch it.

Sean

For the first bird, here are two more pics. Although the in-flight pic is low quality (I have enhanced it a little though), it is interesting for the toes project - very short, pointing rather to a mongolus. The second picture (not a great one either) of the very same bird shows a good image of the tibia. Unfortunately no relevant picture of the bill.
Note that this bird was alone.
The birds in the second picture of my previous post were 3 or 4 in all. Statistically speaking, I would say such a flock belongs rather to leschenaultii. I don't have a more relevant picture of that group. As far as I can see, there's no obvious difference in body size and bill structure, so no particular reason to put them under different species.

Now I'm confused! The wing bar, if it's not a photographic effect, is good for LEsser SP. The tail pattern is not, however. Given that the latter is more likely to be shown correctly in the photo I'd go for Greater SP on this one.

Not 100% though..

Greater SP winters commonly in the area (relatively small/ slender-billed race columbinus), Lesser SP is a rare vagrant in the area....

Rob