[4] The large East Asian forms mongolus and stegmanni are currently identified as the Siberian sand plover, Anarhynchus mongolus; and the Tibetan Plateau form is now known as the Tibetan sand plover, Anarhynchus atrifrons, which includes the three races atrifrons, pamirensis and schaeferi.

The problem is compounded in that the Middle Eastern race of greater sand plover is the most similar to the lesser.

It breeds discontinuously across bare coastal plains in north-eastern Siberia, with the Mongolian plover in the eastern part of the range; it has also bred in Alaska.

[2] The Siberian sand plover feeds on insects, crustaceans and annelid worms, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups.

This species takes fewer steps and shorter pauses than the greater sand plover when feeding.

The Siberian sand plover is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.