Abstract: As nodes can move randomly in mobile sensor networks, the network topology changes frequently. Generally, there is no stable communication path between source node and sink node, even in a short interval. Thus the data forwarding protocol encounters great challenges in mobile sensor networks. Receiver based routing protocols do not require to establish an overall routing from source node to sink node, but allow the neighbor nodes of the sender to contend for the forwarding right under certain rules, and only the contention winner has the opportunity to forward data. Existing receiver based routing protocols can be applied to mobile sensor networks, but they still suffer to some disadvantages in the fields of forwarding priority calculation, data collision, multicast suppression and routing void bypass. Taking into account the characteristics of mobile sensor networks, a receiver based cross-layer forwarding protocol (RCF) is proposed in this paper. The RCF protocol optimizes the forwarding priority calculation and utilizes a self-adaptive mechanism for forwarding right contention. Also, it deals with the data collision and multicast suppression better through the dual-channel communication model, and puts forward an efficient routing void bypass mechanism. The simulation results show that RCF performs well in terms of communication consumption, forwarding delay and reliability.