Diet of nesting Killdeer in North Dakota

摘要

The Killdeer (Charadrius vociferous) is one of the most widespread of all North American shorebirds and, unlike other shorebirds, tolerates a wide variety of open inland habitats in addition to the shores of coastal and inland water. Given its common status, there is surprisingly little information on the Killdeer diet. The only study is an unpublished report by Baldwin (1971) on their diet during the breeding season (June 16 to July 28) on the shortgrass prairie of eastern Colorado. Henderson (1927), Bent (1929), and Martin et al. (1951) also provide qualitative summaries of the Killdeer diet. Rundle (1982) compared esophageal and gizzard analysis in four species of shorebirds including Killdeer and found the three main taxonomic groups eaten by Kill-deer were Coleoptera adults (40% occurrence), Diptera larvae (40%), and Coleoptera larvae (20%). No diet preference studies have been done on the Killdeer.