Plovers & Lapwings in Japan
Our list for Japan has 6 plovers & lapwings recorded regularly there: 1 resident, 1 summer visitor and 4 winter visitors
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in Japan in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 6, most common first
Little Ringed PloverThinornis dubiusSummer visitorCommon14–17 cmRecorded all year
Grey PloverPluvialis squatarolaWinter visitorUncommon27–30 cmRecorded all year
Pacific Golden-PloverPluvialis fulvaWinter visitorUncommon23–26 cmRegularly Jul–May
Kentish PloverCharadrius alexandrinusResidentUncommon15–17 cmRecorded all year
Northern LapwingVanellus vanellusWinter visitorUncommon28–31 cmRegularly Nov–Mar
Ringed PloverCharadrius hiaticulaWinter visitorRare17–19 cmRegularly Aug–Apr
Smallest to largest
Length, cm- Little Ringed Plover 14–17 cm
- Kentish Plover 15–17 cm
- Ringed Plover 17–19 cm
- Pacific Golden-Plover 23–26 cm
- Grey Plover 27–30 cm
- Northern Lapwing 28–31 cm
Body length, bill to tail. Rare birds in grey.
Data: EOD – eBird Observation Dataset (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), accessed via GBIF.org, CC BY 4.0. Records from 2019–2024, aggregated and filtered by Birdfact. How these lists are made