Kozhikode: The Hanuman Sandfowl (Hanuman Plover), which is only found in Sri Lanka and some parts of South India, was spotted on the Kappad coast. 

Dr Abdullah Paleri, ornithologist and zoology teacher at Perambra Silver College, captured the bird on camera. The Hanuman sandfowl was spotted among hundreds of sandpipers and Tibetan sandpipers on the seashore.

International wetland researcher Dr Teji Mundukar and Dr Samath, an ornithologist from the University of Colombo, confirmed that the photographed bird is indeed a Hanuman Sandplover. They said that the bird-watching site, ‘e-Bird’ has not yet recorded any sightings of the Hanuman Sandfowl in Kerala. It is also not included in the checklist of the birds in Kerala.

Sandpipers are common birds found in the coastal and wetlands of Kerala. Earlier, Hanuman Sandfowls were considered to be a subspecies of the sandpipers. But scientists from England and Sri Lanka later classified it as a special species. The scientific name of the bird is Charadrius Seebohmi.