Killdeer are simply fun to watch, especially when one's defending a nest. The broken-wing act is widely known among birders but foxes, cats, dogs and others may be fooled by the spoof which, as may be obvious, is performed to draw attention from the eggs. Once, in southern New Jersey, I observed a killdeer attacking a cow that had evidently moved too close to its eggs. It flew at the face of the puzzled bovine which finally yielded and fed off in a different direction. Killdeer cover plenty of ground in a day's hunting, nipping everything from worms and weevils to grasshoppers and caterpillars.
Snails are also a high-preference food.
The youngsters jump-start at life has them feeding on their own soon after hatching, although the adults are always around to watch over things. The alarm call of a parent sends them scurrying for cover or, if the command has an urgency to it, they hastily press themselves against the ground and freeze. Chicks have even been seen entering ponds and hiding among the reeds or swimming underwater. I'd seen two of them scurry off the edge of a parking lot and feared I'd step on them if I tried to follow. I was in the right place at the right time for a change and watched this little guy slip into its freeze mode only inches from a gravel road.