Kentish Plover

Habitat: Mainly along coasts, especially sandy or muddy shores or dried-out marshes.

Appearance: Found on all continents and in all climate zones from the northern Arctic Ocean to the equator, but strictly associated with a saltwater habitat. Mainly a summer visitor in Western Europe. In Belgium and the Netherlands, it is a very rare breeding bird, a year bird, a migrant in very small numbers, and a winter visitor in extremely small numbers.

Breeding season: April to July, ground nest – nest cavity is scraped out and lined with material, both parents incubate and relieve each other several times a day, if one of the partners dies, the other continues incubating for a few days and then abandons the nest, 3 eggs.

Characteristics: Length 15 – 17 cm, wingspan 42 – 45 cm, weight 32 – 56 grams, age 17 years.

Food: Kentish plovers search for food in the seaweed washed up on the shore, on sandbanks and in shallow water, which must not be deeper than their beaks. Sometimes they shake the mud with their feet, causing some of the animals living in the mud to rise to the surface. They mainly catch snails, small shellfish and worms.