The Kentish plover (Anarhynchus alexandrinus) is a small wader (40–44 g (1.4–1.6 oz)) of the family Charadriidae that breeds on the shores of saline lakes, lagoons, and coasts, populating sand dunes, marshes, semi-arid desert, and tundra. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. Longer flank feathers are thought to be an advantage for incubation and brood care, as the quality of feathers is associated with heat insulation. 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.
Distribution, movement, and habitats
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