Posted by Adrienne Hohensee on March 26, 2008

Q: When I went to Pensacola Beach, I saw grey + brown birds. They were pecking at the ground with their beaks. I figured out they were dunlins. I tried to find the crustaceans and worms that they eat by poking my finger in the sand, but I couldn't. It looks so easy! How do they find their food?

Habitat: ocean

State: North Carolina

Habitat: ocean

A: I really like your thinking on this Adrienne - you'd make a great scientist! I too have often wondered just how they can find ANY food on a beach when I certainly don't see any. They're reported to feed on mollusks (maybe tiny clams), crustaceans, and marine worms along the beach. But as you noted, when we try to find anything worthwhile to eat, it seems that there isn't anything there. I'm guessing the food is hard to see and maybe even can move deeper into the sand when we try to uncover it with our own "heavy handed" excavations. Some of the shorebirds have bills with both tactile (feeling) and chemo-sensitive (can detect different chemicals) on their bill tips that help them find foods. I'm not sure but I believe that the Dunlins have this ability and can find and snatch up food we never see. Hope this helps a wee bit and thanks for your great question.

John Wiessinger ( March 26, 2008)