Egyptian plover to feed on decaying meat lodged between the crocodiles' teeth. The identification of the trochilus with any particular plover is doubtful, as is the cleaning symbiosis itself; no known photographic evidence exists, and the written accounts are considered suspect by the biologist Thomas Howell. Egyptian plover The Egyptian plover ("Pluvianus aegyptius"), also known as the crocodile bird, is a wader, the only member of the genus "Pluvianus". Formerly placed in the pratincole and courser family, Glareolidae, it is now regarded as the sole member of its own monotypic family Pluvianidae. The species is one of several plovers doubtfully associated with
Kittlitz's plover suburbs and ports. In Ghana, wetlands are threatened by coastal erosion and developments that include drainage and wetland reclamation The fraction of the population migrating via the east Atlantic is vulnerable to avian malaria and would be greatly threatened in case of an outbreak of this disease. The same applies to avian botulism, which the Kittlitz’s plover is susceptible to. Kittlitz's plover Kittlitz’s plover ("Charadrius pecuarius") is a small shorebird (35-40 g) in the family Charadriidae that breeds near coastal and inland saltmarshes, sandy or muddy riverbanks or alkaline grasslands with short vegetation. It is native to much of Sub-Saharan