Food Mountain plovers feed primarily on insects, especially spiders, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets and ants. The type of prey consumed changes throughout the season with beetles most common from late spring to midsummer and grasshoppers and ants eaten in greater quantities in late summer. The mountain plover is generally considered an inhabitant of the arid shortgrass prairie, which is dominated by blue grama and buffalo grass with scattered clumps of cacti and forbs. Mountain plovers are very selective in choosing nest sites, preferring expansive, arid flats with very short grass and a high proportion of bare ground. In parts of its breeding range the mountain plover selectively nests in prairie dog towns.
Prairie dogs create unique patches of habitat ideal for mountain plovers.
In shortgrass prairie, prairie dog grazing promotes the short grasses like buffalo grass and grama grasses, and their digging creates areas of bare soil important for plover nesting. Prairie dog towns also attract many species of insects. Mountain plovers will forage on slopes and ridges. Adults with young have been observed in tall vegetation and around livestock watering facilities, which probably provide an abundance of insects. Adults also use plowed fields.