Variability in Foraging Behavior and Implications for Diet Breadth among Semipalmated Sandpipers Staging in the Upper Bay of Fundy

The condor

Elizabeth C. MacDonald¹ 

关键词: Calidris pusilla;    Corophium volutator;    foraging behavior;    intertidal mudflats;    Semipalmated Sandpiper;    stopover ecology;   

DOI  :  10.1525/cond.2012.100246

学科分类：动物科学

来源: Central Ornithology Publication Office

【 摘 要 】

Abstract. During its fall migration stopover on mudflats in the upper Bay of Fundy, Canada, the Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla) is thought to feed primarily on the amphipod Corophium volutator (mudshrimp). Semipalmated Sandpipers typically use a peck-probe foraging strategy and, until recently, there had been little evidence of variability or opportunism in their foraging habits during this stopover. From 2006 to 2008 we recorded data on the sandpipers' foraging behavior and food availability at three commonly used mudflats. Behavior and food availability varied considerably at one site in one year. In 2006 at Grande Anse, where mudshrimp densities were exceptionally low and ostracod densities very high, the peck-probe strategy was almost completely abandoned for “skimming,” a foraging behavior novel in this species. Because of similarities between skimming and grazing, used by Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) to consume biofilm, we hypothesized that birds switched to skimming to feed on biof...

【 授权许可】

CC BY