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Kentish Plovers Chose More Open Nests Later in the Season, With No Consistent Male or Female Preference

Kentish Plover
Research: Behaviour, Reproduction & development

Kentish Plovers (Anarhynchus alexandrinus) nesting on the Gulf of Gabes coast in Tunisia increasingly chose open nest sites as the 2022 breeding season progressed. Of 81 natural nests, 58 — 71.6% — had little vegetation cover, and 46 had no overhead cover at all. Contrary to the researchers’ expectation that rising temperatures might favour more shade, highly covered nests became less common later in the season.

The study also tested a different question: when a pair loses a nesting attempt and the birds pair with new partners, is one sex especially consistent in choosing how exposed or concealed the next nest should be? Kentish Plovers provide a useful test because both parents care for the clutch, males prepare several shallow nest scrapes during courtship and females inspect potential sites before laying.

Most nests were open, and cover declined through the season

The work was carried out at Oued Maltine fishpond near Mahres between 4 April and 13 July 2022. The site consists of sparsely vegetated dykes where plovers can place eggs either in exposed scrapes or beneath vegetation.

The researchers measured how much vegetation covered each nest. Nests with at least 30% cover were treated as highly covered for the field experiment, while those below that threshold were classed as low-cover nests. Only 23 of the 81 natural nests reached the high-cover category.

As laying dates became later, nest cover decreased and the probability of finding a highly covered nest fell. This was the opposite of the initial prediction that later, warmer conditions would lead birds to seek more shade. The result therefore shows a clear seasonal shift, but it does not by itself identify what caused the birds to choose increasingly open locations.

Temporary mate removal tested who drives the choice

To separate the influence of males and females, the researchers used a short-term mate-removal experiment with 25 pairs. Both parents were captured, the clutch was moved to foster nests, and one member of the pair was temporarily held while the other was released. The released bird could then re-pair and start another clutch, allowing the cover of its new nest to be compared with the original one. The design simulated loss of a nesting attempt rather than following a normal successful breeding cycle.

Enough subsequent nests were found to compare ten males and ten females. Neither sex showed repeatable nest-cover choices across the two nesting attempts, and males were no more consistent than females. There was also no evidence that either sex systematically shifted toward more concealed or more exposed nests after the simulated loss.

Individual choices were highly flexible

Sixty percent of the experimental birds changed nest cover between their first and subsequent nest, while 40% showed no change. The direction of change varied: some chose more cover and others less.

The results therefore argue against a simple model in which either males or females impose a stable preference for nest concealment. Instead, nest-cover choice appears highly flexible and may depend on changing local conditions, coordination between partners or previous experience. The study did not test all of those possibilities directly, but it shows that the decision cannot be explained by a fixed male or female preference alone.

Sources and image credit

  1. Boughdiri, H., McDonald, G. C., Székely, T., et al. (2026). Who chooses the nest? An experimental test of nest cover selection. Journal of Ornithology.Primary open-access Version of Record published 21 September 2026. The study described seasonal nest-cover variation in 81 natural Kentish Plover nests in Tunisia and used a short-term mate-removal experiment to test male and female consistency in nest-cover choice.

Image: Kentish Plover (Anarhynchus alexandrinus; photographed under the former combination Charadrius alexandrinus) in India, 13 April 2014. Photo: Davidvraju, edited by MPF / Wikimedia Commons. Representative image; not a study bird. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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