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Numerous studies have emphasised the importance of apex predators in determining community dynamics and broader functioning in marine ecosystems. However, less understood is the ecology of plastic foraging behaviours employed by predators, with drivers of foraging plasticity being a particular knowledge gap in marine sediments. In June/July 2015, we assessed the role of traits and abundance of prey assemblages in influencing decisions made by greater flamingos Phoenicopterus roseus to employ different foraging behaviours in intertidal sandflat ecosystems in Langebaan Lagoon, on the west coast of South Africa (33°11′27″S, 18°07′37″E and 33°03′54″S, 17°58′07″E). Greater flamingos feed by either (1) creating pits, which involves flamingos stirring up deep sediments with their feet or (2) creating channels, in which their inverted bills are swept from side to side on the sediment …