The crab-plover (family Dromadidae) conforms a monotypic family of birds belonging to the order Charadriiformes, often regarded as shorebirds. Belonging to a monotypic family, this species is a typical target of birders visiting sandy shores on its range in the western Indian Ocean. It shows particularly long legs, a large stocky black bill adapted to feeding on large crabs and an attractive pied plumage. Uniquely among its relatives, chicks of this species are not nidifugous but are born unable to walk and stay in the nest for few days. Additional singular features of breeding of these birds is that they nest in burrows and soil heat aids incubation.

The family comprises only 1 species belonging to genus Dromas, which breeds in the east coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, with dispersing individuals moving south to Madagascar and Mozambique and east to India.