Insect Hunting Behavior?

[Anita Rakestraw]

This spring I was watching either a killdeer or mockingbird (sorry, now I can't recall which it was) looking for food. It would run along several feet, then stop, raise its wings about halfway, and stomp several times on the ground with 1 foot. This was repeated as long as it was hunting. I assumed it was trying to scare up insects. The thing is, I've watched both species on the ground many times, and only observed this particular behavior a couple of times. In fact, the foot stomping just that one time. Have others observed this? Mocker or killdeer? Was it more difficult to find insects at that time than later? Thanks for any insight into this.

[John Chardine]

Hi Anita- I've been thinking about your observation but cannot really offer anything solid as I have never seen the behaviour in either of these species. Birds do have many different feeding tactics and they may only use some of them very occasionally when the conditions dictate. For example, in a wet field after heavy rain, gulls will paddle their feet up and down presumably trying to bring the worms to the surface. In my experience they never do this in any other context and therefore it is seen quite rarely.

It would be interesting if someone else has seen this in either the mockingbird group (thrashers, catbbirds, mockers) or in plovers and dotterels such as killdeers.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I have seen this behaviour with Semipalmated Plovers (I'm sure some others do, but this is the species I have personally obersved doing this). Once in a while they will stomp their feet like you described, but do not raise their wings. Stomp 4-5 times. Stay put and wait. Stomp 4-5 times again. ect...

I haven't seen such stomping in Mockingbirds or Killdeers, but the Mockingbirds frequently raise their wings (almost Reddish Egret-style) to flush out insects. Perhaps they also stomp once in a while...haven't seen it myself.

[Anita Rakestraw]

Thanks, John and Dan. I appreciate knowing that this kind of behavior has been observed, and that it is one of a variety of hunting tactics used by some birds. We also had some upland sandpipers around; possibly one of those behaviors was done by one of them....anyway, I found the behavior interesting and was glad I got to observe it!