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Kentish Plover Pairs Switched Incubation More Often at Higher Temperatures

Male Kentish Plover standing on open sandy ground
Research · Behaviour

Kentish plover (Anarhynchus alexandrinus) pairs adjusted how they shared incubation as thermal conditions changed, according to research first made public in February 2026. The study followed breeding birds at a coastal and an inland site in Spain to examine how temperature, wind and environmental variability were related to biparental care.

Males generally took a larger share of incubation at night and females during the day. At higher ambient temperatures, males also contributed more during daytime, while the adults showed more heat-dissipating behaviour and pairs changed incubation duties more frequently.

Wind was associated with less thermoregulatory behaviour, which the authors interpret as an effect of stronger convective cooling — moving air carries heat away from the body — allowing a parent to remain on the nest for longer. The two study populations also differed: at comparable temperatures, males at the more environmentally variable inland site spent more time incubating than males at the coastal site.

The authors describe this higher male contribution as a possible safety margin in a less predictable environment and conclude that short-term thermal conditions and broader environmental variability can both influence how Kentish plover parents divide incubation.

Sources and image credit

  1. Liñán-Cembrano, G., Ramo, C., Pérez-Hurtado, A., Castro, M., Rendón, M. A., & Amat, J. A. (2026). Kentish plovers Anarhynchus alexandrinus increase parental cooperation in variable environments. Journal of Thermal Biology, 140, 104543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2026.104543Peer-reviewed version of record. The study examined how temperature, wind and environmental variability were related to incubation sharing in Kentish Plovers at coastal and inland breeding sites.
  2. Liñán-Cembrano, G., Ramo, C., Pérez-Hurtado, A., Castro, M., Rendón, M. A., & Amat, J. A. (2026). Kentish plovers Anarhynchus alexandrinus increase parental cooperation in stochastic environments. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6189685Preprint of the same research, first publicly posted 6 February 2026; this establishes the first-publication date used for the Wildlife Vagabond draft.

Image: Tisha Mukherjee / Wikimedia Commons — wild male Kentish plover (Anarhynchus alexandrinus) at Bakkhali, West Bengal, India, 15 February 2026; representative species image; cropped to 16:9 · CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Source

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