adult males. Confusion with other similar species The long-billed plover is often confused with other species of plover such as the little-ringed plover, because of range overlap and similarity in appearance. However, the two species can still be distinguished from each other. The long-billed plover is larger than the little-ringed plover. As the name suggests, the long-billed plover has a longer and thicker bill than the little-ringed plover. Adult breeding male individuals of little-ringed plover have a solid black bar above the base of the bill, in addition to the black forehead band. The feathers around the eyes of little-ringed plover are black unlike the brown cheek feathers of long-billed plover. Furthermore, the yellow eye-ring of the little-ringed plover is much more distinct than that of long-billed plover. The breast band of the little-ringed plover is usually wider at the center than on the sides, whereas the breast band of long-billed plover has more or less uniform thickness. Taxonomy The long-billed plover is one of the many species of plovers in the genus Charadrius of the family Charadriidae that includes plovers, lapwings, and dotterels. Charadriidae is one of the 17 families under the order Charadriiformes that comprises a wide variety of shorebirds, such as gulls, terns, auks, puffins, sandpipers, lapwings, plovers, and allies. The long-billed plover was first described by J. E. Gray and G. R. Gray in 1863, and no subspecies has been reported so far. Distribution and Habitat The long-billed plover is widely distributed throughout South and East Asia. It is quite uncommon throughout its range and occurs in small numbers. Breeding ground generally includes western, northern, and central parts of China, Japan, North Korea, and South Korea. Many instances of breeding activity have been reported in the Bureya river and other parts of far east Russia, Honshu island in Japan, southeastern China, and in the western Arunachal Pradesh in India near the Himalayas. This species has also been spotted during its breeding season in Singapore. The long-billed plover travels south of its breeding range to spend the winter. It generally winters throughout eastern Nepal, northeast India to Indochina, southern China, South Korea, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kiyushu islands of Japan, Taiwan, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Thailand. Populations on the three main islands of Japan do not generally migrate south, and are year-round residents. Only the population in Hokkaido travel south to winter in warmer climates. Long-billed plovers prefer to