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
Caspian plover Caspian plover The Caspian plover ("Charadrius asiaticus") is a wader in the plover family of birds. The genus name "Charadrius" is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek "kharadrios" a bird found in ravines and river valleys ("kharadra", "ravine"). The specific "asiaticus" is Latin and means "Asian", although in binomials it usually means the type locality was India. This plover breeds in western and central Asia and migrates southward to eastern and southern Africa to escape the northern winter. This plover is slightly larger than ringed plover, and it