Caspian Plover ( Charadrius asiaticus, family: Charadriidae)

caspian plover kruger national park birds The Caspian Plover (Latin name Charadrius asiaticus) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 252 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 406 also a picture of the Caspian Plover on page 384. The Caspian Plover belongs to the family of birds classified as Charadriidae.

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Caspian Plover is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park. It is however a rare summer resident

In terms of distribution of the Caspian Plover in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Caspian Plover : see above distribution map.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

One of the first indicators to take note of when trying to identify a bird is it relative size. For example how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird. The Caspian Plover is a small bird about the size of a house sparrow. Do not take this relative indicator as anything other than a rough easy to remember indicator. It is not a accurate visualization. The height of the Caspian Plover is about 18 cms and its weight is about 55 gms

You will find that the male Caspian Plover plumage and colours are different to that of the female Caspian Plover

  • Head is white.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is grey.
  • Throat is white.
  • Back is grey.
  • Legs are grey.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Caspian Plover feeds on the ground mainly

Invertebrates

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Caspian Plover takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of Caspian Plover is extra limital

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Caspian Plover are: grasslands

You will normally see the Caspian Plover in flocks.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Unknown

Zulu ... Unknown

Afrikaans ...Asiatiese Strandkiewiet

German ... Wermutregenpfeifer

Portuguese ... Borrelho-asitico

French ... Pluvier asiatique

Dutch ... Kaspische Plevier

First bird in list | Previous bird viewed | Next KNP bird | Last bird in list

For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 252

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za