Habitat
Flat, open, dry ground with very short grass or dried mud, margins of lakes, reservoirs and rivers, small permanent and temporary pools, flood plains, dry sandy riverbeds and marshes. Also the coast on dry salt-flats, tidal mudflats, lagoons, salt-marshes, estuaries, sandy beaches with kelp wrack, and offshore islands. Generally avoids rocky coasts. Occasionally airfields, golf courses, overgrazed pastures and ploughed fields.
Food
Small terrestrial and marine invertebrates including beetles, flies, bugs, grasshoppers, the larvae of Lepidoptera, spiders, molluscs, polycheate worms and crustaceans.
(Charadrius pecuarius) [XC392376]
by GABRIEL LEITE from West Coast NP, Langebaan, Western Cape, South Africa (call)
Kittlitz's Plover (Charadrius pecuarius) [XC277970]
by Tony Archer from Abiata-Shalla National Park, Ethiopia (call)
Nest
A shallow scrape in coarse sand or dry mud, often in an exposed positions, usually within 50 - 100 m of water. They may re-use old scrape nests or utilise natural depressions.
Subspecies
Kittlitz's Plover (Charadrius pecuarius) and St Helena Plover (Charadrius sanctaehelenae) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) are retained as separate species contra Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993) who include sanctaehelenae as a subspecies of Kittlitz's Plover (Charadrius pecuarius).
Probably best considered to form superspecies with Black-banded Plover (Charadrius thoracicus) and St Helena Plover (Charadrius sanctaehelenae). Often considered conspecific with St Helena Plover (Charadrius sanctaehelenae).
Various subspecies have been proposed: allenbyi (Egypt), isabellinus (Egypt to Zaire, Kenya), tephricolor (south-western Africa and northern Botswana); but variation is slight, overlapping and mainly clinal, and reported sample sizes are too small.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet