Unveiling the Migration Pattern of the Kentish Plover: A Collaborative Study

by Chenjing Huang

The Kentish Plover is well-known for its diverse breeding system, yet its migration behaviour remains largely understudied. As part of my PhD project at Professor Zhengwang Zhang’s lab in Beijing Normal University, China, I have been investigating the migration pattern of Kentish Plovers that breed in Bohai Bay. This exciting research is being conducted in collaboration with Professor Tamás Székely from the University of Bath, UK, and Professor Yang Liu from Sun Yat-sen University, China.

Over the past four years, we have been tracking the plovers using two types of devices: geolocators and GPS-VHF loggers. Our preliminary findings reveal that the Kentish Plover breeding in Bohai Bay winter in four distinct regions: inland China, coastal China, the Philippines, and Indochina, with the southern coast of China and the Philippines being the most common destinations. The diversity of migration routes and distances within the population is remarkable and merits further investigation. One notable discovery from multi-year tracking is that individual plovers consistently return to the same wintering sites each year, although their routes and timing can vary. This consistency in wintering locations, paired with flexible migration journeys, adds an intriguing aspect to their behaviour.

Beyond mapping migration patterns, we are also examining how these journeys impact the birds’ breeding behaviour. By combining tracking data with breeding observation, we aim to explore the carryover effects of migration on parental investment, breeding success, and pair bonding maintenance. This research not only sheds new light on the Kentish Plover's migration but also reveals how these patterns may influence key aspects of their breeding dynamics, opening up exciting opportunities for further study on how migration shapes the life history of this fascinating species.