Histoenzymological demonstration of alkaline and acid phosphatases in the intestinal mucosa of several birds, viz Ploceus philippinus, Megalaima haemacephala and Halcyon smyrnensis.

Alkaline and acid phosphatases were histochemically localized in the ileum of three birds with diverse feeding habits. The birds chosen for study included the granivorous Ploceus philippinus, the frugivorous Megalaima haemacephala, and the mainly piscivorous Halcyon smyrnensis. It was found the the activity of these phosphatases tend to be greater in H. smyrnensis and M. haemacephala and comparatively less in P. philippinus, as demoted by variable enzymatic deposition. Simultaneously, their functional significance has been discussed, correlating enzymatic activities with the specific feeding habits of the birds.     

6种猛禽消化系统的比较研究

对6种猛禽(普通鵟Buteo buteo、毛脚鵟B.lagopus、红隼Falco tinnunculus、长耳鸮Asio otus、短耳鸮A.flammeus和鸮Bubo bubo)的消化系统形态结构进行了解剖测量和比较,以了解鸟类消化系统形态结构与食性的关系.结果显示,长耳鸮的消化管最长,是体长的2.08倍;鸮的消...     

The ecology of skylarks on arable farmland

Skylarks are common birds on arable farmland throughout Britain and have recently been implicated in grazing damage to sugar-beet seedlings in Eastern England. Their feeding habits and their relationship to variations in food supplies were described.     

Birds and their food resources at Christchurch International Airport,New Zealand

The diversity and seasonal abundance of birds at Christchurch Airport, their food and feeding habits, and the phenology of the food resource were studied in 1968–69 as part of an investigation of the bird hazard to aircraft. The birds either fed and roosted on the airport or flew over or close to it. Seasonal trends in the diet of black‐backed gulls (Larus dominicanus), black‐billed gulls (L. bulleri), starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), and magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen hypoleuca) were determined by examining the gizzard contents of birds shot while they were feeding on the airfield. Marked food preferences were noticeably lacking, except that black‐backed gulls fed exclusively on earthworms. Black‐billed gulls, starlings, and magpies took a variety of insects, earthworms, arachnids, and, to a less extent, seeds. Species diversity, seasonal distribution, and abundance of invertebrates and seeds showed that the birds were opportunist feeders on a succession of temporarily abundant food, and their presence on the airfield was determined largely by the availability of invertebrates and seeds.     

不同食性野生鸟类肠道微生物研究进展

肠道微生物是庞大而多样的微生物群落,通过促进营养摄取、宿主防御、免疫调节等,在维持机体健康方面起着至关重要的作用。宿主外部或内部环境的任何变化都会影响肠道微生物的组成,鸟类具有复杂的生活史和多样化的食性,飞翔生活使它们的生理活动面临更大的选择性压力,导致肠道微生物菌群的变化更加复杂。近年来,随着基因测序技术的发展以及对鸟类肠道微生物研究的日益重视,导致了鸟类肠道微生物研究呈指数增长。但目前的研究主要以家禽为主,野生鸟类肠道微生物报道则相对较少。野生鸟类肠道微生物结构变化及其维持机制等的研究仍处于起步阶段,有较大的研究空间。从植食性、肉食性、杂食性三种食性的鸟类肠道微生物组成及特点、影响因素等方面对前人的文献进行了全面梳理,以期为野生鸟类肠道微生物研究提供参考。总的来说,植食性鸟类肠道微生物多样性最低,以高丰度的变形菌门（Proteobacteria）、厚壁菌门（Firmicutes）为主;而杂食性鸟类肠道微生物多样性最高。遗传、生活史特征、人类活动、城市化、圈养行为等对鸟类肠道微生物的组成具有显著性的影响。     

Harvesting of Onion Grass,Romulea rosea L. by Sulphur‐crested Cockatoo,Cacatua galerita Latham

The harvesting of Onion Grass (Romulea rosea) corms by flocks of Sulphur‐crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) is well known. Individual birds and large flocks feed on the weed in pastures, grasslands and recreational turf. Flocks of Sulphur‐crested Cockatoo were observed feeding on Onion Grass at seven sites along the Maribyrnong River at Keilor, Victoria. Flock size and feeding habits were noted, as were the depth of corms, the time taken to remove corms from the ground and the number of eaten and lifted but uneaten corms. From the data collected, it was estimated that an individual bird can extract and eat about 200 plants per hour and that even a small flock can consume several thousand plants in a feeding session. Corms were typically within 20 mm of the soil surface and were removed primarily by the cockatoo with its beak, but the left foot was sometimes used to excavate the corm from the soil. Flock feeding sessions lasted from about 0.5 to 2.5 hours, but feeding by individual or pairs of birds was often shorter. Plants that had been removed from the soil appeared to have intact corms, but all that was left were the outer scales. Of the plants removed from the soil, only 6% had intact corms attached. The removal of large numbers of Onion Grass plants could impact on their population numbers over time if there was repeated annual harvesting.     

Ants as a Major Food Source of the Chough

Few birds are more captivating in their behaviour, more exciting in their aerial manoeuvres, than the Chough, a species now restricted to the wilder parts of our western coasts. This field study of its specialised feeding habits shows how closely its future welfare may depend upon the continuance of a grazing regime on islands and headlands within its range.     

Black-backed jackal diet at Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Botswana

We examined the feeding habits of black‐backed jackals at Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Botswana, by analysing 237 scats collected between November 1995 and February 1997. Jackal dietary habits reflected the availability of a wide variety of food items and the differential vulnerability of prey. Potential animal and plant food available to jackals varies throughout the year because of its seasonal character. Seasonality of prey occurrence in scats was pronounced for small mammals, miscellaneous fruits and invertebrates. Across all seasons, mammals were the most common food resource (32.4%, n = 168), followed by anthropogenic items (14.8%), fruits (12.9%), invertebrates (10.8%), birds (8.5%), unidentified items (3.5%) and reptiles (1.4%). The presence of domestic mammals and poultry remains in scats reveals their importance in the diet of jackals and the tendency of jackals to frequent human settlements in search of food. Some ecological implications of jackal dietary habits are also explored.     

OBSERVATIONS ON THE NESTING SITES AND NESTING BEHAVIOUR OF THE KITTLITZ'S SANDPLOVER CHARADRIUS PECUARIUS

Jackson, S. 1984. Predation by Pied Kingfishers and Whitebreasted Cormorants on fish in the Kosi estuary system. Ostrich 55:113-132.

Identification of otoliths from the regurgitated pellets of Pied Kingfishers Ceryle rudis and Whitebreasted Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo from the Kosi estuary system provides information on the relative proportions of fish species in the diets of the birds. This information can be related to the feeding habits, distribution and abundance of their prey. It is also an indication of the feeding range of the birds. There is little overlap between both the size classes and the species of fish taken by the two predators. This is because of the difference in size and fishing techniques of C. rudis and P. carbo, and of differences in their feeding ranges. Competition for food between the two populations of birds studied is minimized by these differences.     

Diet of stone martens: an example of ecological flexibility

The feeding ecology of the stone marten in a rural area of Central Italy was assessed by faecal analysis. Habitat analysis, performed through a Geographical Information System, and intensive radio-tracking allowed us to investigate intra-population variations of diet in relation to habitat. The species'feeding habits were opportunistic: fruit and berries were the staple diet but mammals and birds were also important. Diet varied seasonally in relation to resource availability, with a predominance of fruit in autumn and frequent presence of insects in summer. Individuals living in adjacent areas but in different habitats (wooded and rural) showed significant variations of diet, adapting their feeding habits to local availability of foods. The great adaptability of the stone marten to very different resource conditions can represent a key to the species'success through its wide range.     

棕胸竹鸡觅食行为的观察

对笼养条件下棕胸竹鸡（Bambusicola fytchii fytchii）每日的觅食节律的时间、频次、求偶取食行为和社群等级之间的关系进行了观察。结果表明：影响棕胸竹鸡觅食行为的主要因素是一天中它在地面上活动、静栖、游走及饮水等项行为所占时间的长短。影响求偶取食行为的主要因素是它在地面上活动的总时间和理羽、攻击及其它的求偶活动所占的时间多少。社群等级对棕胸竹鸡的觅食行为有一定的影响,但不甚显著。     

THE FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS OF SHELDUCK TADORNA TADORNA

The food and feeding habits of Shelduck Tadorna tadorna are described, based on the analyses of the viscera of 30 birds collected under special licence, and of 18 birds found dead or dying during the cold weather of 1963, on faecal material from eight incubating birds, on field observations and on the literature. The birds came from a number of different localities and from each month of the year, apart from July.
The mollusc Hydrobia ulvae (Pennant) was found in all 46 birds which contained food, and it is quite obvious, and this is confirmed by the literature and by faecal analyses, that this is the most important food item during much of the year and in many different localities. Other species eaten included the bivalve Macoma balthica , the amphipod Corophium volutator , the ragworm Nereis sp., the alga Enteromorpha , and occasionally the seeds of various plants.
The importance of H. ulvae is examined in the light of its distribution and numbers, which may be a strong controlling factor in concentrating Shelduck in certain areas at certain times of the year.
The feeding behaviour of Shelduck, and a number of other birds, is apparently closely related to the cyclic behaviour pattern of the main food species, H. ulvae .
It seems that Shelduck have a rather fixed type of feeding behaviour which exploits only one feeding niche and therein mainly one food item. Any event (prolonged gales or very cold weather) which prevents the bird from using that niche can be the cause of heavy mortality.     

THE WINTER FEEDING ECOLOGY OF WIGEON AT BRIDGWATER BAY, SOMERSET

The feeding ecology of Wigeon wintering in the vicinity of Bridgwater Bay National Nature Reserve is described. The birds roost on mudflats in the Bay during the day and feed, mainly at night, on saltings and wet pastures in the surrounding area. Their food, ascertained from gut analyses, consists largely of grass leaves; with roots, stolons, bulbils and seeds of secondary importance. Analyses including gizzard contents much exaggerated the importance of seeds because they are retained in the gizzard for longer than softer items.
An investigation of Wigeon feeding behaviour and food preferences on salting pasture is described, using the density of the birds' droppings on different vegetation zones to assess usage, and faecal analysis to determine the composition of the selected diet. The technique of faecal analysis is discussed in relation to feeding studies on grazing wildfowl.
Disturbance is a very important factor affecting the availability of feeding habitat, and this can mask the birds' food preferences. Early in the winter, Wigeon select Puccinellia maritima in preference to Agrostis stolonifera and Festuca rubra. They do this initially by selecting the broad zone in which they feed, by selecting feeding sites within zones, and particular plant species from a mixed sward. The birds are more selective when feeding in less preferred zones. The mechanisms and reasons for food selection are discussed in relation to characteristics of the habitat and of the plants. It is concluded that the nutritional value of the plants is important in determining the birds' preference, but that other factors also play a part.
Wigeon are flexible in their feeding habits and are increasingly found on inland habitats. They are adaptable in using new roosts, and in modifying their behaviour in response to changes in food supply and changes in disturbance pressures.     

The passage and propagation of fecal indicator phages in birds

The presence of F-specific phages in the diet of birds influenced the presence of these fecal indicators in their feces. F-specific phage concentrations in the feces of Canada geese and pigeons, which are normally low, increased greatly the same day coliphage MS2 was added to their diets. F-specific phage concentrations decreased to the original low levels a week after the phage-spiked feed was removed. Geese kept in pens that were cleaned regularly to reduce fecal-oral contamination had significantly lower somatic coliphage concentrations in their feces than wild geese had in their feces. Somatic coliphage concentrations in feces of feral pigeons were typically low with an occasional fecal sample having high numbers of either one of the two types of phages seen in this population of birds. Sometimes many birds had high numbers of only one type of phage in their feces. This lasted only a day and was probably due to fecal contamination of the feeding pans by the pigeons. The degree to which birds are a source of phage indicators of fecal pollution can change in a short period of time. Thus the presence of contaminated feeding sites should be considered before ruling out animals as a possible source of fecal indicators. F-specific phages may be useful tracers for modeling viral transmission and tracking feeding habits in birds. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2000) 24, 127–131. Received 06 July 1999/ Accepted in revised form 07 November 1999     

Habitat partitioning and antagonistic behaviour amongst the birds of a West African scrub and plantation plot

A study was made of feeding patterns and antagonistic behaviour amongst 11 common bird species frequenting an abandoned rubber plantation and scrub plot in southern Nigeria.
The examination of feeding patterns involved a comparison of foraging habits and an analysis of the use made by each species of the major vertical and horizontal subdivisions of the habitat. Two species of muscicapid flycatchers showed a striking similarity, both in foraging habits and their use of the major habitat zones. In general, however, species with otherwise similar foraging habits were found to feed in habitat zones which were spatially separated.
A number of these latter species showed antagonistic reactions to one another. However, unlike most reported instances of such behaviour in birds, neither species in the pairs we observed played a consistently dominant role. Dominance was usually shown by whichever individual made most use, for feeding purposes, of the encounter zone.
Under these circumstances it seems possible that interspecific antagonism allows species to adjust to local variations in habitat structure and to capitalise on the temporary absence of potential competitors. In which case it is more appropriate to regard this type of behaviour as an important component in the process of habitat partitioning, rather than to dismiss it as an activity which will ultimately be rendered redundant in the course of evolution.     

Blood meal sources of mosquitoes captured in municipal parks in São Paulo,Brazil

The aim of this study was to investigate blood meal sources of mosquitoes captured in municipal parks in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, and to identify possible associations between mosquito species and their food preferences. Fourteen species of blood hosts of 510 engorged adult female mosquitoes were identified using PCR assays with a vertebrate‐specific primer set based on cytochrome b mitochondrial DNA of the following vertebrates: birds, dogs, cats, rodents, humans, and other primates. Mosquitoes were captured using a manual aspirator, CDC traps in the canopy, CDC traps at ground level, and Shannon traps. With the exception of cats, all other vertebrates were used as hosts by mosquitoes in the parks. Statistical analysis failed to show any trend toward association between most culicid species captured and the sources of blood meals. Instead, they revealed random patterns, indicating that the mosquitoes fed on the most abundant or convenient blood meal sources. Although feeding preferences were observed in two species (birds in the case of Cx. nigripalpus and dogs in the case of Cx. quinquefasciatus), our results highlight the opportunistic feeding habits of the female mosquitoes in this study.     

THE FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS OF TUFTED DUCK AYTHYA FULIGULA

The food and feeding habits of Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula are described, based on field observations and on the analyses of the stomach contents of 95 birds, all but one of them having fed inland; 57 were collected from a gravel pit near London, 28 from Northern Ireland and 9 from a number of English inland waters, in the shooting seasons 1959-60 and 1960-61.
The London birds in both seasons had fed primarily on molluscs, mainly Dreissena polymorpha. The Northern Ireland birds, where D. polymorpha does not occur, had a more variable diet, again mainly molluscs, but with some crustaceans, insects and plant seeds. The English birds had a similarly variable diet with the emphasis on crustaceans ( Asellus spp.) and with some molluscs, insects and plant seeds. Brief information is given on the food of young birds.
It is suggested that the spread of D. polymorpha may be one of the factors explaining the recent spread of the Tufted Duck in certain areas. It appears that where one particular food such as D. polymorpha is not plentiful a more variable diet is taken, though molluscs always figure prominently. The type of food taken depends on the type of habitat used, the availability and size of the food items and on the methods of feeding.     

Are levels of digestive enzyme activity related to the natural diet in passerine birds?

Digestive capabilities, such as the rates nutrient hydrolysis and absorption, may affect energy intake and ultimately feeding behavior. In birds, a high diversity in gut biochemical capabilities seems to support the existence of a correlation between the morphology and physiology of the intestinal tract and chemical features of the natural diet. However, studies correlating the activity of digestive enzymes and the feeding habits at an evolutionary scale are scarce. We investigated the effect of dietary habits on the digestive physiological characteristics of eight species of passerine birds from Central Chile. The Order Passeriformes is a speciose group with a broad dietary spectrum that includes omnivorous, granivorous and insectivorous species. We measured the activity of three enzymes: maltase, sucrase and aminopeptidase-N. Using an autocorrelation analysis to remove the phylogenetic effect, we found that dietary habits had no effect on enzymatic activity. However, we found that granivorous and omnivorous species had higher levels of disaccharidase activities and insectivores had the lowest. The major difference in enzymatic activity found at the inter-specific level, compared to the reported lower magnitude of enzyme modulation owing to dietary acclimation, suggests that these differences to some extent have a genetic basis. However, the lack of a clear association between diet categories and gut physiology suggested us that dietary categorizations do not always reflect the chemical composition of the ingested food.     

The pelagic ecology of the Grey and Red-necked Phalaropes Phalaropus fulicarius and P. lobatus in the Bay of Fundy, eastern Canada

The outer Bay of Fundy, eastern Canada, is an important feeding area for migrant Grey and Red-necked Phalaropes Phalaropus fulicarius and P. lobatus in late summer. The birds feed on copepod-sized zooplankton, brought to the surface by the passage of strong tidal streams over shallow, rocky 'ledges', and concentrated there in upwelling and convergence 'streaks'. Feeding phalaropes are significantly more abundant in the 'streaks' than in adjacent 'contro' areas. Red-necked Phalaropes are the more common species; they prefer the New Brunswick shore, where copepod biomass is high and the species-community is dominated by large, Stage VI-V Calanus finmarchicus . Grey Phalaropes occur mainly on the Nova Scotian side of Fundy, where the copepod biomass, and the dominant species, are smaller. The feeding habits of both species, and their non-breeding distributions, are reviewed. It is concluded that upwellings, convergences, and other oceanographic phenomena that concentrate zooplankton at the surface are the principal factors influencing the pelagic ecology of phalaropes.     

Diet of the maned wolf, Chrysocyon brachyurus, in central Brazil

Analysis of 105 scats of the maned wolf ( Chrysocyon brachyurus ) collected in central Brazil yielded 304 occurrences of food items of which fruits of Solanum lycocarpum , rodents, and birds accounted for 61.5%. By analysis of minimum number of individual animals, rodents and birds were 75% of a total of 156 prey. On the other hand, fruits of S. lycocarpum and armadillos ( Dasypus spp.) were the bulk of the total estimated biomass consumption, yielding 63.7% in a total of 73.5 kg. Rodents were mostly captured during the dry season, while miscellaneous fruits were consumed mostly in the wet season. The consumption of S. lycocarpum fruits and armadillos was aseasonal. Small rodents were taken in about the ranks of abundance in the study area, but S. lycocarpum fruits were actively searched by maned wolves, for its occurrence is limited to secondary savanna. Prey and fruits typical of savanna ('cerrado') and grassland ('campo') were the bulk of species, occurrences, prey numbers, and biomass consumed. These findings reinforce the importance of conservation of cerrado and campo in central Brazil. Despite maned wolf being a vulnerable species, its feeding habits are opportunistic, and the main reasons for its decline are likely to be habitat destruction and human disturbance.