[2][3] The specific leschenaultii commemorates the French botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour.

[2] It breeds in the semi-deserts of Turkey and eastwards through Central Asia, where it nests in a bare ground scrape.

This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in East Africa, South Asia and Australasia.

Its food consists of insects, crustaceans and annelid worms, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups.

[citation needed] The greater sand plover is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.