The forehead, throat and belly are white, while a chestnut breast-band joins a band of same colour on the fore-crown.

[6] However, the breeding months are placed between March and October according to some authors, who also report large numbers of the chestnut-banded plover at the coast during December and January.

[7][8] The plover populations in Kenya and Tanzania in the African Great Lakes breed between March and October.

[9] The birds move up and down the Rift Valley, with peak numbers occurring at Lake Manyara between July and September.

The nominate subspecies is found in Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

There is strong genetic divergence between these two subspecies based on microsatellite genotyping and mitochondrial sequence analyses.

[12] However, because it occurs at fewer than ten locations in the non-breeding season, and habitat quality thereof is declining, the chestnut-banded plover is evaluated as Near Threatened in the 2007 IUCN Red List.

During non-breeding season, Walvis Bay and Sandwich Harbour in Namibia and Lake Natron in Tanzania can hold 87% of the world population.

Sandwich Harbour is additionally a National Park while Lake Natron is a game controlled area.