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Kentish Plovers shift how they forage while keeping a stable diet

Kentish plover standing visibly in coastal habitat
Research: Ecology, Behaviour

On a tropical sandy beach on India’s west coast, researchers analysed high-definition video recordings from 2020 to 2024 to study how Kentish Plovers (Anarhynchus alexandrinus) found and caught prey. Successful captures made while foraging at the sand’s surface declined over time, while successful captures made by foraging deeper increased.

The two foraging modes were associated with different prey. Deep foraging was more often linked to catching sand crabs, while surface foraging was more often linked to catching small crabs and aquatic insects. Sand crabs dominated the birds’ diet throughout the study, and its overall composition remained broadly stable. But consumption of particular prey changed: sand crab consumption increased, while consumption of aquatic insects, bivalves and small crabs declined.

The findings show why looking at both feeding behaviour and prey consumption matters: a broadly stable overall diet can conceal changes in how birds catch prey and which prey they eat. The researchers interpret the shifts in foraging success and individual prey as a response mainly through behaviour, rather than a wholesale change in diet.

Sources and image credit

  1. Changing relative success of foraging modes with a stable diet composition in Kentish Plover (Anarhynchus alexandrinus) on tropical sandy beachPrimærkilde. Abstractet oppgir studieperioden, videoobservasjonene, endringene i næringssøk og bytteinntak samt forskernes tolkning. Publiseringshistorikken oppgir 13. oktober 2026 som publiseringsdato.

Image: Wild Kentish plover in India. Photo: Shiv's fotografia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Representative image. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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Ecology

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Species in this story

Kentish Plover Anarhynchus alexandrinus Explore species

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