Scientific name: Charadrius asiaticus Pallas, 1773
Bird group: Waders
Field characters. 22-25 cm. Larger than Great Ringed Plover. Adult male in breeding plumage with a diagnostic rusty breast-band with dark lower border. Upper parts grey-brown; crown, nape and eye-stripe grey-brown, rest of head white; long thin black bill. Female and male in winter duller coloured, showing only slight rusty tinge to breast. Juvenile resembles female but with distinct pale feather edges.
Voice. Call a loud sharp "kwhitt".
Distribution. Central Asia; only western-most part of distribution in W Palearctic.
Habitat. Breeds on open arid salt steppe, tolerating some sparse shrub vegetation at most. Outside breeding season visits poor grasslands, open savannah, and marshes. Winters in Africa.
Food. Insects and larvae; occasionally grass seeds.