Abstract
Diet and feeding behaviour of red-necked stints
(Calidris ruficollis) and curlew sandpipers
(Calidris ferruginea) feeding in mixed flocks during the
non-breeding season were investigated in Western Port in Victoria,
south-eastern Australia. Surface pecking was the most common feeding action of
both species, followed by jabbing for red-necked stints and probing for curlew
sandpipers. Mean depths of substrate penetration were 3.4 mm (red-necked
stints) and 14.0 mm (curlew sandpipers). The preferred feeding zone for
red-necked stints was wet mud (86%) and for curlew sandpipers was
shallow water (40%).
Feeding rate did not vary between species but did vary between months and age
classes for curlew sandpipers. Gastropods made up 68% of the sample
volume for stints and two unidentified species in the families Hydrococcidae
and Fossaridae occurred most frequently in terms of occurrence in the guts and
total prey items. Curlew sandpipers took a wider variety of taxa (12) than did
red-necked stints (8), with polychaete worms (Nereidae) being their most
frequently recorded prey and comprising 63% of the volume of the gut
samples. When prey taxa overlapped in the diets of the two species, some size
differences of prey were apparent. Differences in bill morphology and feeding
behaviour, including microhabitat use, corresponded with these differences in
diets.
Subject
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
13 articles.
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