{"id":31682,"date":"2026-05-20T19:52:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T10:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=31682"},"modified":"2026-05-20T20:03:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:03:03","slug":"two-tibetan-sand-plover-%ea%b2%80%ec%9d%80%ec%9d%b4%eb%a7%88%ec%99%95%eb%88%88%eb%ac%bc%eb%96%bc%ec%83%88-baengnyeong-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/?p=31682","title":{"rendered":"Two Tibetan Sand Plover \uac80\uc740\uc774\ub9c8\uc655\ub208\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8, Baengnyeong Island"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Nial Moores, May 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adult male Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> Anarhynchus atrifrons<\/em> \uac80\uc740\uc774\ub9c8\uc655\ub208\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8 in full breeding plumage, May 4th 2026, Baengnyeong Island \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following the rain of May 3rd which helped produce the island’s first Asian Dowitcher<\/strong> \ud070\ubd80\ub9ac\ub3c4\uc694, the weather on May 4th seemed unremarkable, and there was little evidence of any kind of arrival on Baengnyeong Island. Together with Professor Rebecca Hartman and Birds Korean John Kitcher, we therefore decided to spend a half hour or so on the main beach looking for six Siberian Sand Plovers<\/strong> Anarhynchus mongolus<\/em> (somewhat confusingly previously known as Lesser Sand Plover<\/em> then as Mongolian Sand Plover Charadrius mongolus<\/em>) which had been found by eBird’s Ian Davies the previous day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along the shoreline we found a few Sanderling <\/strong>and Red-necked Stint<\/strong>, and watched with joy several Kentish Plover<\/strong>, including a pair with young. Walking back to the seawall, RH spotted a movement next to a tidal pool below the seawall: a gorgeous Pacific Golden Plover<\/strong>. Although 200m away and into the light, NM decided to scope the pool, and immediately saw an odd-looking female sand plover in breeding plumage. The bill looked long, and ID as Greater Sand Plover<\/em> Anarhynchus leschenaultii <\/em>– a scarce, not even annual species on the island – initially seemed the most likely fit. A few seconds later, however, and a second bird moved into view. This was an adult male with what looked like a full black face-mask and a similarly long bill to the female…Tension and anticipation rose quickly: were these instead Tibetan Sand Plovers<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We moved very cautiously toward the pool, and over the next 30 minutes or so were able to watch both birds well. Both looked like “Lesser Sand Plovers”, with rounded heads, lacking the bulk and flat-crowned and flat-backed look of Greater Sand Plover<\/em>. Both had long, rather thin looking bills, and fairly long, dark legs (paler legs would be expected in Greater Sand Plover). The male had a wide black forehead with two tiny grey headlights near to the eye – lacking the white forehead spots typical of Mongolian \/ Siberian Sand Plover. The breast band was bright orange-red, rather than dark brick-red, and these bright tones extended across the nape and onto the forehead. The upperparts on both looked rather bright too (almost sandy-brown with paler fringes) and the flanks on both lacked any sign of the brown mottling which is considered diagnostic of “Mongolian” Siberian Sand Plover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adult male breeding plumage Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> \uac80\uc740\uc774\ub9c8\uc655\ub208\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8 Anarhynchus atrifrons<\/em>, May 4th 2026, Baengnyeong Island \u00a9 Nial Moores. Note the rather long and slender bill without the obvious distal swelling shown by Siberian Sand Plover; the lack of a black upper border to the orangey-red breast band; and the lack of brown markings along the flanks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unlike female Siberian Sand Plovers, the female Tibetan<\/strong> lacked clear black on the head; and instead looked rather bright above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Female Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> \uac80\uc740\uc774\ub9c8\uc655\ub208\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8 (on left), male on right, May 4th, Baengnyeong Island \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Male (on left) and female Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> \uac80\uc740\uc774\ub9c8\uc655\ub208\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8 (on right). The birds often behaved like a pair… May 4th 2026, Baengnyeong Island \u00a9 Nial Moores<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finding a single Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> in Korea would be amazing, but two together…? Stunned, I sent several texts to Ian Davies and Alli Smith, encouraging them to get to the site quickly; and also texted Birds Korea member Andy Lee, who was also on the island with several “Young Gun” birders from the university birding club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ID and AS arrived probably within thirty minutes and took some wonderful flight shots of the male, confirming the lack of brown flank markings, and that the toes extended beyond the tail – another feature supporting ID as Tibetan Sand Plover.<\/strong>.. AL’s team arrived rather later, and unfortunately could not relocate the birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adult male Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> in flight (with Kentish Plover), May 4th 2026, Baengnyeong Island \u00a9 Ian Davies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To dispel any incredulity over the ID as Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong>, NM sent a few images to Dave Bakewell in Malaysia. DB is widely recognised as a \/ the leading expert on their ID; and his commentary on social media provided most of the features that I used in the field on Baengnyeong. Happily, as expected, DB confirmed that he had no doubt that both birds were indeed Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong>. Stunning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, both birds were again present at the same site, this time with a Siberian Sand Plover<\/strong>, and were photographed again by NM, RK, ID and also by Professor Kim Young-Gul and Tony Lee. At least the male was present on May 6th too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> (on left) with Siberian Sand Plover<\/strong> (on right), May 5th, Baengnyeong Island \u00a9 Nial Moores. In addition to differences in the bill and leg length, and the lack of extensive white on the forehead and the brown flank markings, both Tibetans<\/strong> looked rather bigger-bodied and obviously brighter than the Siberian<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Siberian Sand Plover<\/strong> (on left) with two Tibetan Sand Plover,<\/strong> May 5th, Baengnyeong Island \u00a9 Nial Moores. Single digiscoped image, with central part of image cropped out to allow more direct comparison. The structural and plumage features described above were rather obvious in direct comparison.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> is a recent species split that resulted from a thorough analysis by Wei, Schweizer, Tomkovich et al. (2022)<\/a> which found that that the mongolus <\/em>subspecies group of Lesser Sand Plover (a regular and locally numerous species during migration along the ROK coast en route<\/em> to breeding grounds in NE Asia and wintering areas in SE Asia and Australia) was actually more closely related to Greater Sand Plover (scarce in Korea) than to the more western distributed atrifrons<\/em> subspecies group. They therefore recommended that Lesser Sand Plover be divided into two full species: more western Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> and more eastern Siberian Sand Plover<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on a pre-publication text, this split of Lesser Sand Plover into two species was accepted by Birds Korea in our 2022 checklist, with inclusion of Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> on the Korean list based on a photo of a bird taken by Chai Seung-Hoon in Gunsan – apparently on May 2nd 2010. This split was also accepted by the IOC and Avilist on February 12th 2023; and by the Korean Ornithological Society in 2025, which gave Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong> the Korean name of \uac80\uc740\uc774\ub9c8\uc655\ub208\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tibetan Sand Plovers<\/strong> therefore become the 403rd bird species since 2013 to be recorded on Baengnyeong Island; and are perhaps only the second national record to be adequately documented with images. While undoubtedly rare in Korea, based on their known range and migratory status, it seems likely that more Korean records will follow…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Range map of Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong>, Birds of the World, May 2026. Orange marks the breeding range; blue the wintering range.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to look for? Separation from Greater Sand Plover and Siberian Sand Plover can be made on structure at all times of the year (especially bill length, lack of bill “swelling” and leg length); and during northward migration especially, by the absence of head lights, the width of the breast band; the relative brightness of the plumage, and of course on the absence of brown markings along the flanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Breeding-plumage Greater Sand Plover <\/strong>Anarhynchus leschenaultii <\/em>\ud070\uc655\ub208\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8, April 2020, Baengnyeong. \u00a9 Nial Moores. Note the very long and heavy bill, big head with flattish crown, flattish back and long (usually obviously) pale legs – giving a quite different look to Tibetan Sand Plover. In breeding plumage, adult male Greater Sand Plovers<\/strong> in Korea usually have a rather narrow orange-red breast band (lacking a black upper border); and fairly large white “head lights” on the forehead. Like Tibetans, they lack the obvious brown flank markings shown by the vast majority of Siberian Sand Plover.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Breeding plumage Siberian Sand Plover<\/strong> \ubabd\uace8\uc655\ub208\ubb3c\ub5bc\uc0c8, Saemangeum, May 2007 \u00a9 Richard Chandler. This species has rather shorter legs and a rather shorter bill than either Tibetan or Greater Sand Plover, with a swollen looking distal third. Diagnostic to the species, Siberians also show brown smudges along the flanks (in a few hard to detect at range), while males in breeding plumage show deep red on the breast, topped with a fine black border.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Adult male Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong>, May 6th 2026, Baengnyeong Island \u00a9 Kim Young-Gul.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Female (on left) and male Tibetan Sand Plover<\/strong>, May 4th 2026 \u00a9 John Kitcher.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With sincere thanks to all those who kindly shared their images, allowing this record to be fully documented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Nial Moores, May 2026 Following the rain of May 3rd which helped produce the island’s first Asian Dowitcher \ud070\ubd80\ub9ac\ub3c4\uc694, the weather on May 4th seemed unremarkable, and there was little evidence of any kind of arrival on Baengnyeong Island. … read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":31689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[1194,1193],"class_list":["post-31682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-field-identification","tag-baengnyeong-island","tag-tibetan-sand-plover"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31682"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31703,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31682\/revisions\/31703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdskoreablog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}