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
Three-banded plover t. bifrontatus" has a grey band between the bill and the white forehead, and the sides of the head are grey. The sexes are similar, and the juveniles of the nominate and Madagascan subspecies also resemble the adults, although the forehead is brownish for a short time. This species is distinguished from the larger, darker Forbes’s plover in that the latter species has a brown forehead and lacks a white wingbar. Three-banded plover The three-banded plover, or three-banded sandplover ("Charadrius tricollaris"), is a small wader. This plover is resident in much of eastern and southern Africa and Madagascar, mainly on