VOL. 16 (3) SEPTEMBER 1995 91

AUSTRALIAN BIRD WATCHER 1995, 16, 91-95

First Record of the Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus in Australia

by NIVEN McCRIE, P.O. Box 41382, Casuarina, N.T. 0811

On 6 November 1988, during evening high tide at Buffalo Creek, near Darwin, N.T., I noted a plover showing a full white collar as it flew away from me. I located the bird when it landed, and with Norm McKendrick and Noreen McKendrick spent almost an hour observing it with binoculars and a 25 X telescope. During subsequent observations I was able to take a number of photographs through the telescope. Until 23 November 1988, observers saw the plover on numerous occasions, always at the same place, and at about the same time. Despite a number of visits in the morning it was not seen other than at the afternoon (evening) high tide, either roosting well up on the beach or feeding at the water's edge. From the photographs and field notes, and subsequent personal field experience with the similar Malaysian Plover Charadrius peronii in Indonesia, I identified the bird as Kentish Plover Charadrius alexarulrinus, probably of the Asian race dealbatus. The sighting constitutes the first record of the species for Australia. Marchant & Higgins (1993) cited the record as 'unverified'. Subsequently the RAOU Records Appraisal Committee unanimously accepted the bird to the Australian list (Submission no. 170, 10 March 1994). The status of the record must now be considered 'verified'. This paper provides a diagnosis of the bird' s identity. The description is based on field notes taken at the time.

Description Size. Larger bodied and longer legged than Red-capped Plover C. ruficapillus (Plate 27), and smaller than Lesser Sand Plover C. mongo/us and Greater Sand Plover C. leschenaultii, both of which were regularly seen directly beside the bird for comparison. Upperparts. Forecrown black; crown mid grey-brown, becoming slightly rufous towards the nape. Hindcollar white, complete. There was no black at the lower edge of the white collar. Mantle and back mid grey-brown, very similar to the upperparts of winter-plumaged Greater Sand Plovers that were nearby for comparison. The back was very uniform except for some pale marks, probably caused by feather wear. The sides of the tail were white, the centre concolorous with the back. Underparts. Forehead white. Lores grey to black. Pale lower eyering. Black feathering from eyes to ear-coverts. White supercilia stopping just short of the collar. Sides of breast black. Remainder of underparts pure white. Flight. Underwing entirely white. Upperwing grey-brown with extensive white wingbar, similar to Red-capped Plover. Rump and tail dark-centred with broad white sides. Soft parts. Bill black, proportionately longer and heavier than in Red-capped Plover, with an indistinct brown patch at base of lower mandible. Legs pale yellow-grey, similar to legs of Greater Sand Plover; longer than in Red-capped Plover, particularly in the tibia. Call. No calls were heard. Behaviour. The plover was quite readily approachable when roosting, though at times when disturbed it separated itself from the other roosting plovers. It roosted on the sand, loosely within a group of up to about 120 or more Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers and Red-capped Plovers. It regularly roosted in a depression in the ground, rather more like Lesser and Greater Sand Plovers than Red-capped Plover. At times only its head was visible above the ground. When feeding it ran beside the water's edge quite busily. Habitat. Buffalo Creek is a mangrove-fringed muddy tidal creek diverted at the mouth by a sandbar­ beach system. With the great tidal range (7-8 m), huge areas of sand are exposed at low tide, whereas AUSTRALIAN 92 McCRIE BIRD WATCHER at high tide roosting areas are quite small and are quite close to the monsoon forest which borders the beach. At all times the plover was seen on sandy areas, either feeding at the water's edge or roosting away from the water on higher ground.

Diagnosis Literature comparing Kentish and Malaysian Plovers is scarce. Much of the following discussion on the two species is based on personal correspondence with observers in Asia wko have had personal experience with both. It draws also on my own experiences during December 1992 and January 1993 when I was able to observe several Malaysian Plovers at close quarters in Indonesia. 1. Bill. The bill is rather long and stout for nominate alexandrinus. It fits well into the range for ·the Japanese breeding race C. a. dealbatus, which averages 14% longer and 15% deeper bill than nominate alexandrinus (Cramp & Simmons 1983). The Malaysian Plover's bill is generally shorter but deeper at the base than nominate alexandrinus. Its bill is certainly shorter than in C. a. dealbatus (Hayman et al. 1986). In the field I noted Malaysian Plover as having rather a heavy bill, not long as on the Darwin bird. The Darwin bird had a small brown patch at the base of the lower mandible. A brown patch at the base of the lower mandible is more suggestive of Malaysian Plover, although it occurs in some Kentish Plovers. A photo of a juvenile C. a. nivosus (a Nearctic race) in Farrand (1993) shows a clear pale brown patch on the lower mandible. This supports A. Prater's comment (pers. comm.) that the brownish patch is not significant. 2. Legs. The bird had pale legs. The Malaysian Plover typically has pale legs, whereas most Kentish Plovers have blackish legs. However, some Kentish Plovers have pale legs [photographs of a nominate Kentish Plover in Vaughan (1980) show legs which match the colour of the Darwin bird's legs very closely], and this appears more common in Asian races (Hayman et al . 1986, D. Melville pers. comm.). 3. Plumage phase. From the black markings on the bird's head and breast it was a male bird. It was an adult, as evidenced by the length of the scapulars (J.B. Cox pers. comm., A. Prater pers. comm.), and the plumage was worn. This was evident in the field. Adult male Malaysian Plovers show a black collar at all times of year (C . Briffett pers. comm.). The several adult male Malaysian Plovers I observed in December and January all had complete and pronounced black borders to the collar. No birds had black elsewhere on their plumage without also having it on their backs. 4. Collar. Hayman et al. (1986) stated, 'Adult [Malaysian Plover] females may show blackish in breast-band, mask and frontal bar, but not on hindneck ... [they] may be difficult to distinguish from migrants [ofKentish Plover]'. A. Prater (pers. comm.) checked with notes made for Hayman et al. (1986). He wrote, 'The maximum amount of dark feathering (and it is of a blackish-brown colour) is a few feathers admixed in the crownbar and breast patches but rarely elsewhere'. At least one of the photos shows a darker region below the white collar. A. Prater (pers. comm.) suggested that the appearance of a dark border below the white collar is not surprising as 'wader feathers usually or at least frequen,tly have dark down towards their bases'. 5. Ear-coverts. Blackish feathering extending from the ear-coverts to the eyes suggests Kentish Plover. On all Malaysian Plovers I saw (and according to the literature on that species) there is white feathering separating the blackish of the ear-coverts from the eyes. VOL. 16 (3) SEPTEMBER 1995 Kentish Plover in Australia 93

Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus with Red-capped Plover C. ruficapillus at Buffalo Creek, Darwin, N.T., November 1988 Plate 27 Photos: N. McCrie

6. Crown markings. The long white supercilium suggests Kentish Plover. Malaysian Plover has a paler crown than Kentish Plover. The crown of the Darwin bird indicates Kentish Plover (C. Briffett pers. comm.). 7. Upperparts. The bird had the long scapulars of an adult. They were worn- the irregular margins were noticeable (A. Prater pers. comm.). The mantle feathers showed dark centres with pale fringes, giving a faint scaly appearance. The appearance of some variegation can be attributed to wear, not actual dark centres. C. Briffett (pers .. comm.) noted that the overall darkness of the mantle of the bird in the photographs AUSTRALIAN 94 McCRIE BIRD WATCHER indicated Kentish Plover rather than Malaysian Plover which is noticeably lighter. This feature was distinctive in the Malaysian Plovers which I observed in Indonesia. 8. Wingbar. The bird had a bold wing bar. Malaysian Plover has a bolder wing bar than Kentish Plover. A. Prater (pers. comm.) 'doubts that the differences in wingbars is enough to pick up in the field'. Malaysian Plovers I have seen in flight showed rather a diffuse - if quite extensive - wingbar. 9. Size. The size of the Darwin bird is significant, and seems almost diagnostic on its own. All references I have seen give the measurements of Kentish Plover as larger than Malaysian Plover. The difference is enough to pick up in the field, especially in the race dealbatus. The Malaysian Plovers I observed in Indonesia were approximately the size of Red-capped Plovers, not larger (I was able to view the two species together), and significantly smaller than the Darwin bird. M. Silvius (pers. comm.) noted of the bird in the photographs that it 'is too big for a Malaysian Plover and its bill too pronounced'. Plate 27 shows the clear size difference between the Kentish Plover and Red-capped Plover. 10. Stance. C. Briffett (pers. comm.) noted that the stance of the bird in the photographs is indicative of Kentish Plover rather than Malaysian Plover 'which tends to be more squat and horizontal'. 11. Habits. The Malaysian Plover is sedentary (Hayman et al. 1986), thus it is unlikely to occur as a vagrant. J. Starks (pers. comm. to Jeff Campbell, 1988) likened Malaysian Plover to Hooded Plover Thinomis rubricollis in its habits. The Kentish Plover is migratory in some of its races, and is more likely to occur as a vagrant, especially in the more northerly Asian race dealbatus. It is not surprising that the Darwin bird matched the description of C. a. dealbatus closely and is probably referable to that race.

Discussion The Kentish Plover breeds in Africa, Europe, Asia, Japan and the Americas. It winters in west Africa, round the Mediterranean in Europe, the west coast of North America, north and north-west Gulf of Mexico, the west coast of South America, the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia (Marchant & Higgins 1993). In Indonesia there are records from the Greater Sundas-Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java and Bali (MacKinnon & Phillipps 1993). There is a specimen from Halmahera and unconfirmed records from Sulawesi (White & Bruce 1986). I consider that three birds I observed in Timor (Lesser Sundas) in December 1992 were Kentish Plovers. The race C. a. dealbatus breeds in Japan, eastern China and Ryukyu Islands, with some intergrading with the nominate race in Manchuria, Korea and southern Ussuriland (Cramp & Simmons 1983). It migrates southward as far as Malaysia and Singapore (Strange & Jeyarajasingham 1993), Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java (Andrew 1992, MacKinnon & Phillipps 1993). Records from the Lesser Sundas are to be expected, as is the possibility of occasional birds reaching Darwin. The Darwin record is the first in Australia of Kentish Plover. A subsequent record of a dried corpse transported to Australia by ship is worth noting (Brown 1989, Patterson 1990). Patterson's (1990) term 'transported introduction' gives the impression of a live bird, which was not the case. After a diagnosis of the bird's identity by B. Patterson and A. Fletcher, the specimen was photographed before being destroyed 'at the requirement of Agricultural inspection officers' (Brown 1989). The photographs were not published with the brief accounts of the record, nor was the claim submitted to the Records Appraisal Committee. The record therefore remains unverified. It is unfortunate that the specimen was destroyed as published details of the bird'~ plumage are inadequate. The measurements are somewhat small for typical VOL. 16 (3) SEPTEMBER 1995 Kentish Plover in Australia 95

C. a. dealbatus (see e.g. Gore & Won 1971 , Cramp & Simmons 1983 , Sonobe & Usui 1993). A plumage feature mentioned, i.e. the 'almost non-existent supercilium' , is also unusual for Kentish Plover. Further scrutiny of the specimen would have allowed clarification of these points. Special treatment of the specimen, such as gamma irradiation (S . Debus pers. cornrn.), may have meant that the corpse was able to be preserved as a specimen.

Acknowledgements I am grateful to Tony Prater, John Cox, Clive Briffett, Marcel Silvius, David Wells and David Melville for their comments on the photographs. Jeff Campbell helped find reference material. Roger Jaensch made helpful comments on a draft of this paper.

References Andrew, P. (1992) . The Birds of Indonesia- A Checklist (Peters' Sequence) , Indonesian Ornithol. Soc., Jakarta. Brown, P. (1989), 'A freeloading Japanese wader', Bird Observers Assoc. Tasmania News[. 19(2), 1-2. Cramp, S. & Simmons, K.E.L. (Eds), (1983), The Birds of the Western Palaearctic, vol. 3, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Farrand, J. Jr (Ed.), (1983), The Audubon Master Guide to Birding, vol. 1, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Gore, M. E. J. & Won, P. (1971), The Birds of Korea, Royal Asiatic Society, Seoul. Hayman, P., Marchant, J. & Prater, A. J. (1986), Shorebirds: An Identification Guide to the Waders of the World, Croom Helm, Kent. MacKinnon, J. & Phillipps, K. (1993), A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Marchant, S. & Higgins, P.J. (Eds) (1993), Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, vol. 2, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Patterson, R.M. (1990), 'Bird observations 1989- systematic list', Tasmanian Bird Repon 19, 39-55. Sonobe, K. & Usui, S. (Eds), (1993), A Field Guide to the Waterbirds of Asia, Wild Bird Society of Japan, Tokyo. , Strange, M. & Jeyarajasingham, A. (1993), Birds: a Photographic Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, Sun Tree Publishing, Singapore. Vaughan, R. (1980), Plovers, Terence Dalton, Suffolk. White, C.M.N. & Bruce, M. (1986), The Birds ofWallacea, British Ornithologists' Union, London. Received 17 November 1994 •