Feeding ecology of the Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva) in the Sg. Labu River on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula

The feeding ecology of the Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva) in the Sg. Labu river near the Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula was studied in March and April of 1994. The plovers had two foraging sites, a polychaete-feeding and a mussel-feeding site, which were located at a distance of about 1 km from each other. The tidal height of the polychaete-feeding site was higher than that of the mussel-feeding site, which was not exposed at the neap tide. Therefore, the polychaete-feeding site, which was exposed during every low tide, was better for food collection than the mussel-feeding site. The individuals that undertook more frequent changes in feeding sites had a lower intake rate of polychaetes in the polychaete-feeding site. There were two classes in the feeding order, and the lower class had to feed on mussels in addition to polychaetes to obtain sufficient food.For polychaete-eaters, the total number of steps during a feeding bout was significantly higher and the number of pecks was significantly lower than those of mussel-eaters. Usually, mussel-eaters spent more time preening and resting than polychaete-eaters, although the former had less time for feeding than the latter had because of the shorter exposure time of the mussel-feeding site. This means that mussel-eaters may have had higher feeding efficiency than polychaete-eaters, regardless of their preference for polychaetes as a diet.Polychaete larvae frequently settled on mussel beds and their populations became established after the collapse of mussel populations. Therefore, mussels were not only an important part of the diet of P. fulva, but they also constructed mussel beds that attract polychaetes, i.e. the plover's most important food.