The Three-banded Plovers or Three-banded Sandplovers, Charadrius tricollaris, are small waders found in much of eastern and southern Africa and Madagascar.
They are mostly associated with inland rivers, pools and lakes.
The closely related and similar Forbes’s Plovers replace them in western parts of Africa.
Description
The Three-banded Plover measures about 7 inches or 18 cm in length.
The tail and the wings are long.
In the adult plumage, the back is medium brown and the lower parts white except for two blackish chest bands that are separated by a white band, for which this species was named.
They have black crowns and red eye rings.
The Madagascan subspecies – C. t. bifrontatus – can be differentiated by the grey band between the bill and the white forehead. The sides of the head are grey.
Diet / Feeding
Feed on insects, worms and other invertebrates.
Calls / Vocalization
Their calls are described as sharp whistled weeet-weet sounds.
