Confirmed breeding record of the Crab Plover Dromas ardeola in Eritrea

摘要

The Crab Plover Dromas ardeola breeds from April to August on islands in the northwestern Indian Ocean, where twelve known colonies are confirmed to have survived since 1970: three in Iran, two in the United Arab Emirates, one in Oman, two in Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea coast, two in Somalia (Rands 1996) and two in Sudan (Nikolaus 1989). The species is also suspected to breed in Yemen (Rands 1996), Kuwait (Cowan 1990, Wright 1995), Sri Lanka (Palmes & Briggs 1986) and Eritrea (Smith 1957, Clapham1964, Urban & Boswall 1969). This paper confirms that Crab Plovers breed in Eritrea, at Dahret, a small island of the Dahlak Archipelago.