Puna Plover Charadrius alticola

Chilean name: chorlo de la puna
Ouna Plover, Laguna Chaxa, Chile, January 2007 - click for larger image Laguna Chaxa, Chile
January 2007

The Puna Plover is distributed in the Andes from central Peru through western Bolivia and north-east Chile to north-western Argentina. It is found in puna wetlands and around salt and freshwater lakes between 2,400 and 5,000 metres.
Ouna Plover, Laguna Chaxa, Chile, January 2007 - click for larger image It has a white forehead with a dark bar above, a dull grey and sometimes broken broad band on the lower breast and a broken upper breast band that is also darkish. The bill and legs are black. Normally much of the crown and nape are cinnamon-rufous but I saw only a faint hint of this on a few of the several birds that I saw.
Ouna Plover, Laguna Chaxa, Chile, January 2007 - click for larger image Alvaro Jaramillo says, "Most adults apparently retain black and cinnamon ornamentation of face and breast all year. Puna does not show a distinct non-breeding plumage." On this basis these birds must be immatures but it was surprising that I saw no adults.

There is a distribution map on xeno-canto.
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