Birda Logo
Features
Birda+
About
Species Guide
Challenges
Shop
loading...

Crab-plover

The Crab-plover (Dromas ardeola) is a distinctive bird belonging to its own family, Dromadidae, with uncertain relations within the Charadriiformes, displaying similarities to thick-knees, pratincoles, auks, and gulls. It is the sole member of its genus and notably uses the warmth of the ground to incubate its eggs—unusual for waders. Sporting a black and white plumage, a heavy, strong black bill suited for eating crabs, partially webbed toes, and long grey legs, it's an unmistakable sight. The sexes look similar though males have longer bills, while juveniles wear greyish black. Known for their noisy calls, crab-plovers fly in formation and are protected under the AEWA. Residing along Indian Ocean coasts and islands, they forage on crabs, often in large, social groups and exhibit crepuscular and nocturnal behavior, especially during breeding season. They breed from April to July in areas like the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, dispersing as far as Sri Lanka and Madagascar. Unique among waders, crab-plovers nest in burrows, laying one, occasionally two, large eggs in solar-heated sand, allowing parents to leave the nest for extensive periods. Chicks, unable to walk initially, receive prolonged parental care after hatching and even post-fledging.

Regions

A photo of a Crab-plover (Dromas ardeola)

Crab-plover

Dromas ardeola
App logo
Birda is a birdwatching app and community aimed at curious people who want to deepen their connection with nature.
1
Birda Logo

Your birdwatching journey like never before

Connect with nature in minutes
Take a walk, look out of the window and log the birds that you see. Feel good about those little connections to nature.
Discover the joy of birding
Find new birding spots, see more birds, share and celebrate with a like-minded community of nature lovers.
Play your part in saving nature
Logging your birding sightings and sessions turns into positive action for our planet. Every sighting counts.

Species Categories

Birda Blog

What Our Birders Say
Ellesse_W
Learning Birding with Birda
I’m relatively new to birding as a hobby, and Birda is a great way to keep track off all the species I see. I’m still working on my ID skills, but the app is great for figuring out potential species, and the online community is so friendly and helpful. Definitely recommend Birda to both early and serious birders! 🐦
778
Great bird recording
For a while I’ve been trying to find an app to easily record bird lists and day out and struggled to find one that I like. Birda is great for this, straightforward and a great community!
Stewart W
Fantastic to be involved
Fantastic to be involved, great for mental health and gets you responding with the Challenges that are to takd part in.
Patricia L
Very encouraging birding app
Easy to use, fun to see progress and encouraging to receive feedback from other users.
D3Nature
Great app for learning Birds
I’ve been using the app for a couple of months and love it....Someone said it’s like a real life Pokémon Go for birds. They’re not far off! It’s something that the family can do that gets you out and about. Well worth downloading no matter your age.
Trevarthen1
Birda fan
I really enjoy using Birda, all sightings are recorded and photos can be added. There are monthly challenges which help to get you out to record your sightings. The Birda community are great and are happy to help with unidentified bird sightings. Suitable for all ages and experience!
Emcil24
A Friendly Place
I love using the bird app, I have a pretty good knowledge of birds. But I do have some gaps in it, so it’s nice to have a safe space to check on a sighting to confirm the species. It’s really enjoyable and I love the badges you can collect. It’s like a real life Pokémon go.
Talli A
My favourite app
As a young birdwatcher who was always keen to be apart of a community but never seemed to find one, my problem was solved downloading this!!! Everyone is so friendly and just as excited to see birds as me 😁
Hip An
Fantastic
Really enjoying Birda where I live i have a lot of Red kites really hard to photograph but I can video are you planning some place on the app where us Birda can post vids🦉🦅
Anonymous
The best bird logging app
Birda is honestly the best bird logging app I have seen. I love all the features it has from being able to do a session and log all the birds you see in one sitting, to being able to connect with other birders from all over the globe!
As featured in
Birda Logo
AboutPressAmbassadorsAffiliatesInfluencersCareersPrivacyTerms & Conditions
An app for birdwatchers
Connect with us
Copyright © 2024 Chirp Birding. All rights reserved.