Foraging and aggressive behavior of waders (Charadriiformes, Charadrii) as an evidence of their competition on feeding areas on the southwestern Caspian Sea coast

摘要

Foraging and aggressive behavior of 14 species of waders during autumn migration and of 6 species during winter were studied in the Kirov bay (the Kyzylagach Reserve, Azerbaijan). In August, the majority of the species included into microhabitat guilds showed a high similarity in ways of feeding and pecking rate. Under low diversity of tile basic prey. this fact indicated the similarity of consumed food resources. In January, waders significantly differed in feeding behavior and the ratio small prey/large prey. Raising the aggressiveness and an increase of differences in ways of feeding, the food abundance being decreased, interspecific territoriality and other displays of interspecific interference testify to the interspecific competition of waders during both migration and hibernation.