The Kentish plover (Anarhynchus alexandrinus) is a small wader () of the family Charadriidae that breeds on the shores of saline lakes, lagoons, and coasts, populating sand dunes, marshes, semi-arid desert, and tundra.Székely, T., A. Argüelles-Ticó, A. Kosztolányi and C. Küpper. 2011. Practical guide for investigating breeding ecology of Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus, Unpublished Report, University of Bathdel Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World, Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK Both male and female birds have pale plumages with a white underside, grey/brown back, dark legs and a dark bill; however, additionally the male birds also exhibit very dark incomplete breast bands, and dark markings either side of their head, therefore the Kentish plover is regarded as sexually dimorphic.Message, S. and Taylor, D.W. 2005. Field guide to the waders of Europe, Asia and North America. London: Christopher Helm Publishers.
The Kentish plover has a large geographical distribution, ranging from latitudes of 10º to 55º, occupying North Africa, both mainland, such as Senegal, and island, such as the Cape Verde archipelago, Central Asia, for example alkaline lakes in China, and Europe, including small populations in Spain and Austria. Some populations are migratory and often winter in Africa, whereas other populations, such as various island populations, do not migrate.Meininger, P., Székely, T., and Scott, D. 2009. Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus. In: Delaney, S., Scott, D. A., Dodman, T., Stroud, D. A. An atlas of wader populations in Africa and Eurasia. Wetlands International, pp 229-235Kosztolányi, A., Javed, S., Küpper, C., Cuthill, I., Al Shamsi, A. and Székely, T. 2009. Breeding ecology of Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus in an extremely hot environment, Bird Study, 56:2, 244-252 Its common English name comes from the county of Kent, where it was once found, but it has not bred in Britain since 1979.
Kentish plovers are ground-nesting birds, often with a preference for low, open, moist nesting sites away from thick vegetation and human activity. They use a number of materials to build their nests, mainly consisting of shells, pebbles, grass and leaves in a small scrape in the ground.AlRashidi, M., Long, P.R., O'Connell, M., Shobrak, M. & Székely, T. 2011. Use of remote sensing to identify suitable breeding habitat for the Kentish plover and estimate population size along the western coast of Saudi Arabia. Wader Study Group Bull. 118(1): 32–39Szentirmai, I. and Székely, T. 2002. Do kentish plovers regulate the amount of their nest material? An experimental test, Behaviour, 139(6), pp. 847–859 Like most plovers, the Kentish plovers are predominantly insectivores, feeding on a large range of arthropods and invertebrates depending on the environment, by using a run and stop method.Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) European birds online guide (no date) Available at: http://www.avibirds.com/html/Kentish_Plover.html (Accessed: 16 January 2017)Székely, T., Karsai, I. and Kovazs, S. 1993. Availability of Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) prey on a Central Hungarian grassland. Ornis Hung. 3:41-48
Taxonomy The Kentish plover was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Charadrius alexandrinus. Linnaeus based his account on the description of a bird from Egypt by the Swedish naturalist Fredrik Hasselqvist that had been published in 1757. In 1801 the ornithologist John Latham coined the binomial name Charadrius cantianus for the species (now a junior synonym) and introduced the English name "Kentish plover" as his specimens had been shot near the town of Sandwich in Kent. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2022 found that Charadrius was paraphyletic. The genus was therefore split and a clade that included the Kentish plover was moved to the genus Anarhynchus that had previously only contained the wrybill.
The North American snowy plover was formerly treated as a subspecies of the Kentish plover. However, a study published in 2009 found that they were in fact distinct enough to be treated as separate species. In 2023 it was proposed that the subspecies seebohmi of southern India and Sri Lanka should be elevated to full species status. The English name of Hanuman plover was suggested based on the mythology of the monkey god Hanuman who built a bridge between India and Lanka in the epic Ramayana.
Three subspecies are recognised: A. a. alexandrinus (Linnaeus, 1758) – coastal west Europe (formerly British Isles), Macaronesia (west of northwest Africa), north Africa, sporadically to Senegal; inland through central Asia to northwest, central north Indian subcontinent, north, central Mongolia and north China A. a. nihonensis (Deignan, 1941) – Sakhalin and Kuril Islands (southeast Russia), Hokkaido through Ryukyu Islands, Korea Peninsula, northeast, east China and Taiwan A. a. seebohmi (Hartert, EJO & Jackson, AC, 1915) – south India and Sri Lanka
Description
The Kentish plover is a small shorebird weighing around 40 g as an adult. Both male and female birds have black bills and dark legs, however adults have dimorphic plumage. During the breeding season, males have a black horizontal head bar, two incomplete dark breast-bands on each side of their breast, black ear coverts and a rufous nape and crown (although there is some variation between breeding populations), whereas the females are paler in these areas, without the dark markings.Argüelles-Ticó, A., Küpper, C., Kelsh, R.N., Kosztolányi, A., Székely, T. and van Dijk, R.E. 2015. Geographic variation in breeding system and environment predicts melanin-based plumage ornamentation of male and female Kentish plovers, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 70(1), pp. 49–60Szekely, T. 1999. Brood desertion in Kentish plover: Sex differences in remating opportunities, Behavioral Ecology, 10(2), pp. 185–190 In the early breeding season, it is easy to distinguish between males and females since the ornaments are very pronounced, but as the breeding season progresses, the differences between the two sexes decrease. Moreover, males have longer tarsi and longer flank feathers than females.Kis, J. and Székely, T. 2003. Sexually dimorphic breast-feathers in the Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 49, 103-110 Longer flank feathers are thought to be an advantage for incubation and brood care, as the quality of feathers is associated with heat insulation.Wolf, B. O. and Walsberg, G. E. 2000. The role of plumage in heat transfer processes of birds. American Zoologist, 40, 575-584 There are multiple significant predictors of plumage ornamentation in Kentish plovers. Firstly, the interaction between the advancement of the breeding season and rainfall seem to affect ornamentation. Male ornaments become more elaborated over the course of a breeding season in regions with high rainfall, whereas in regions with low rainfall, male ornaments become lighter. Secondly, the interaction between the breeding system and the sex can predict the degree of plumage ornamentation. In polygamous populations, the sexual ornaments are more pronounced, generating a stronger sexual dimorphism than in monogamous populations. The difference is especially witnessed in males, whereby the ornaments are darker and smaller in polygamous populations compared to monogamous populations, where males have lighter and larger ornaments. This is thought to be the result of a trade-off between the size and intensity of the ornaments.Hill, G.E. 1993. Geographic variation in the carotenoid plumage pigmentation of male house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus). Biol J Linn Soc 49:63–86
Distribution, movement, and habitats Distribution Kentish plovers have an extremely wide geographical distribution and their habitats vary not just spatially but environmentally too. They are known to reside and breed in multiple types of habitat, from desert with ground temperatures reaching 50 °C to tundra. The distribution of this species' breeding areas covers Europe, Asia and Africa.Vincze, O., Székely, T., Küpper, C., AlRashidi, M., Amat, J.A. et al. 2013. Local Environment but Not Genetic Differentiation Influences Biparental Care in Ten Plover Populations. PLoS ONE 8(4 In Europe, populations are typically found in the west; although there was once a breeding population in Hungary, Kentish plovers no longer breed there. In Africa, populations are found on the southern coast of Senegal and along the Northern coast of the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea coast. The breeding area continues along the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain in the Middle East. Small populations can be found on islands too, such as the Cape Verde archipelago, the Canary Islands, and the Azores. It is a rare vagrant in Australia. Some populations do not migrate, such as the Maio (Cape Verde) population, however other populations can migrate reasonable distances, for example, plovers that spend winter in North Africa have been known to migrate to Turkey and Greece in the spring. Some birds breeding in western Europe are not known to travel very far, just within Europe, however some do travel, mainly to Western Africa.Meininger, P., Székely, T., and Scott, D. 2009. Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus. In: Delaney, S., Scott, D. A., Dodman, T., Stroud, D. A. An atlas of wader populations in Africa and Eurasia. Wetlands International, pp 229-235.
Habitats and movement The breeding habitats are most commonly alkali lake shores, wetlands, salt marshes, and coastland, which is fitting with the results of a study that investigated what makes an environment suitable for a breeding habitat for the Kentish plover. By analysing four variables of all known nests, the study found that plovers prefer to nest in areas of low elevation, low vegetation, high moisture and places faraway from human activity and settlements.
There have been observations of parents moving their chicks from poor food areas to better food areas, with chicks subsequently growing stronger in the high food areas. This suggests that parents strategically move their chicks and change habitats. Moving young has benefits: protection from predators, obtaining more food, avoiding competition for food and space, avoiding potential infanticide due to competition, and avoiding territory defences from others. However, this is a trade-off as there are also costs to moving young: moving expends a lot of energy, especially in young, therefore chick growth may be stunted as energy is used on movement rather than growth, the chance of mortality due to starvation or predation increases whilst moving through open areas and the area of high food may have a lot of predators in it already. Overall, chick growth and brood survival benefit from moving to a higher food area, therefore increasing reproductive success of parents, hence why the parents move their chicks. The study also found that the larger and heavier females were more likely to move chicks, perhaps because they could defend their chicks from neighbouring parents.Kosztolányi, A., Székely, T. and Cuthill, I.C. 2007. The function of habitat change during brood-rearing in the precocial Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus, acta ethologica, 10(2), pp. 73–79
Behaviour and ecology Breeding