March 8th, 2006. Eilat.
| Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii columbinus
| This is the most frequent form of Greater Sand Plover occurring in Israel. It is both small and relatively short-billed and as such, can be very difficult to separate from Lesser Sand Plover. The columbinus subspecies has probably been responsible for more than 30 claims of Lesser Sand Plover in Israel over the years, but to date there are still only two accepted National records of the latter.
This lovely group of eleven columbinus spent just one morning at the Eastern end of the North beach.
Sand Plover identification is well covered in the British Birds article
by Eric Hirschfeld, Kees Roselaar and Hadoram Shirihai (BB Vol 93,
No.4, April 2000).
| Photo-notes (1:4) from the Birdfinders tour to Southern Israel 2006.
| | Images taken using Canon Powersjot A95 through Swarovski HD telescope. |
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