Diet composition of Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus): insights from undigested prey in droppings across three selected microhabitats along the west coast of India

Understanding how coastal habitat structure and macrobenthic invertebrate communities shape shorebird foraging is central to marine ecological research in intertidal systems. We investigated habitat-specific variation in abundance, diet composition, and prey-diet relationships of the Kentish Plover across three contrasting coastal microhabitats—mudflats, mangroves, and adjacent sand beach—at Kadalundi-Vallikkunnu Community Reserve along the west coast of India from 2022 to 2024. Using generalized linear models and multivariate analyses of prey remains from droppings and concurrent macrobenthic invertebrate sampling, we found that Kentish Plover abundance was primarily structured by habitat type, with significantly higher numbers on sand beach and a consistent decline over the study period. Diet composition differed markedly among habitats but showed little temporal variation, with sand beach characterized by sand crab-dominated diets, whereas mudflats and mangroves were dominated by polychaetes and small crabs. Despite strong spatial variation in macrobenthic invertebrate prey assemblages, prey abundance did not explain dietary composition, indicating selective foraging rather than direct tracking of resource availability, a pattern further supported by electivity analysis. These results demonstrate a decoupling between macrobenthic invertebrate prey abundance and realized diet and highlight the role of habitat-specific prey accessibility in structuring shorebird foraging within tropical coastal ecosystems.