thumb|A characteristic pair feeding on the shoreline, [[The Gambia]]
The Egyptian plover (Pluvianus aegyptius), also known as the crocodile bird, is a wader, the only member of the genus Pluvianus. It occurs in a band across Sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east and south to parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite the name, it no longer occurs in Egypt. The species was formerly placed with the pratincoles and coursers in the family, Glareolidae, but is now regarded as the sole member of its own monotypic family Pluvianidae.
The species is one of several plovers doubtfully associated with the "trochilus" bird mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus in a supposed cleaning symbiosis with the Nile crocodile.
Taxonomy
The Egyptian plover was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius aegyptius. Linnaeus based his account on the description by the Swedish naturalist Fredrik Hasselqvist that had been published in 1757. The Egyptian plover is now the only species placed in the genus Pluvianus that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot. The species was formerly placed with the pratincoles and coursers in the family Glareolidae but beginning in 2007 molecular phylogenetic studies showed that it is not closely related to these species. It was therefore moved to its own family Pluvianidae that had been proposed (as Pluvianinae) in 1848 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach. The genus name Pluvianus is from the French pluvier meaning plover. This was based on the assumed close relationship with the plovers in the family Charadriidae. Edme-Louis Daubenton used the French name, "Pluvian du Sénégal"' for the species in his Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle that was published between 1765 and 1783. The species is considered to be monotypic, with no subspecies being recognised.
In flight the black crown and back contrast with the grey of the upperparts and wings. The flight feathers are brilliant white crossed by a black bar. From below, the flying bird is entirely white, apart from the buff belly and black wing bar. The end of the tail has a white band. After landing, members of a pair greet each other by raising their wings in an elaborate ceremony that shows off the black and white markings. According to Herodotus, the crocodiles lie on the shore with their mouths open and a bird called "Trochilus" flies into the crocodiles' mouths so as to feed on decaying meat lodged between the crocodiles' teeth. The identification of the Trochilus with any particular plover is doubtful and the cleaning symbiosis itself has never been documented by video or photographic evidence.
Gallery
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File:Egyptian Plover (Pluvianus aegyptius), Basse Santa Su, Wuli, Gambia 04.jpg|Gambia
File:Egyptian Plover (Pluvianus aegyptius), Basse Santa Su, Wuli, Gambia 17.jpg|Gambia
File:Egyptian Plover (Pluvianus aegyptius), Basse Santa Su, Wuli, Gambia 18.jpg|Gambia
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