Possible "White-faced" Plover (juvenile) at the boardwalk - 31st May 2011
A puzzling (to me) juvenile "Charadrius" plover with a hindcollar.
Little-ringed Plover seemed a possibility, it breeds locally, but I eliminated it due to LRP's smaller size, brighter yellow legs and -usually- LRP's complete collar across the breast.
Common Ringed Plover and Long-billed Plover are both rare winter visitors. Neither seemed "right" for this individual.
Kentish Plover - is a spring and autumn migrant, numerous winter visitor - to my mind more delicate than this.
So I was still guessing about the identification until I heard that the recently re-discovered "dealbatus" form of Kentish Plover, known as "White-faced" Plover was found breeding on a beach in late May at Shantou, Guangdong Province, by Brian Ivon Jones.
For photos of young plovers on the beach, and other shots of "dealbatus" see Oriental Bird Images at :
http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=2840
There is a good online account of the re-discovery of "dealbatus" here at Surfbirds :
http://www.surfbirds.com/Features/plovers1108/malayplovers.html
To sum up, "dealbatus" is:
(1) slightly larger than the Kentish Plovers that winter in south China,
(2) bigger-billed and
(3) longer-legged, especially above the knee.
(4) the legs are paler in colour than wintering Kentish Plovers.
(5) in flight: broad white trailing edge to secondaries, pale tips to the outer greater coverts and extreme white in outer rectrices, more so than Kentish would show.
Science has not yet determined whether this form is a race of Kentish Plover, or a separate species.
So, to get to the point, I think this could be a "White-faced" Plover, Charadrius (alexandrinus) dealbatus.
I have exchanged Emails and my photos above with Peter Kennerley and David Bakewell - the co-authors of the "dealbatus" identification papers in Forktail and Birding Asia, as well as the Surfbirds article linked to above.
They have been quite positive, but have expressed reservations about whether these photos absolutely confirm the identification, especially because the identification features of juvenile "dealbatus" are still not well known.
A suggestion
This is a reminder (as stated in the Kentish Plover account in the HK Bird Report 2005-2006) to bird watchers and photographers to be on the lookout for White-faced Plover on Hong Kong's shorelines this summer and early autumn. "dealbatus" is said to prefer sandy beaches, so they could turn up in some very underwatched places.
