Diet of Great Knots (Calidris tenuirostris) during spring stopover at Chongming Dongtan, China

Abstract

Variable and unpredictable food resources at stopover sites bring severe challenges to migrating shorebirds. Opportunistic foraging strategies, referring to shorebirds consuming prey in proportion to their availability, allow shorebirds to replenish fuel and nutrient reserves efficiently for continuing their migration. Chongming Dongtan, located in the Yangtze River estuary of eastern China, is the first major stopover site of shorebirds on the Chinese mainland during their northward migration. We investigated the diet of Great Knots (<i>Calidris tenuirostris</i>) at Chongming Dongtan during the spring stopovers of 2009 and 2010 through benthos sampling and dropping analysis. The benthos samples were categorized into gastropods, bivalves, polychaetes, crustaceans and insect larvae. Dropping analysis indicated that gastropods and bivalves constituted more than 70% of the diet of the Great Knot, with <i>Assiminea violacea</i> and <i>Corbicula fluminea</i> being the most frequently consumed. Chi-square tests indicated that for each prey category, there was no significant difference between the frequency of its occurrence in the benthos samples and dropping samples during the early stopover periods of 2009 and 2010 and during the late stopover periods of 2010. Although there was a statistically significant difference between the frequency of occurrence of prey in the total macrobenthos and in the droppings of the Great Knots during the late stopover period in 2009, the more abundant prey were more frequently consumed by the Great Knots. This suggests that Great Knots adopted an opportunistic foraging strategy during their stopover at Chongming Dongtan.