DIetary Shifts Based Upon Prey Availability in Peregrine Falcons and Australian Hobbies Breeding Near Canberra, Australia

Diet of Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) in Korea: Food Items and Seasonal Changes

“…Despite the Peregrine Falcon's consumption of prey ranging from dragonflies or flycatchers to gulls, our data show that the year-round geometric mean prey weight in Korea was only 128.8 to 143.3 g, which was mainly the result of numerous small-to medium-sized birds. This value was similar to the range (132.1 to 140.1 g) reported in Australia (Olsen et al 2008), and smaller than the value of 169.0 g reported by Jaksić and Braker (1983).…”

“…Although we could not quantify prey preferences due to a lack of information on overall prey availability or unused prey, commonly taken prey species were abundant residents (e.g., turtle-doves), migratory birds (e.g., thrushes), and colonial seabirds (e.g., murrelets) of the biomass range 100-200 g in this region. The heaviest prey items in our study were Herring Gulls, Mallards, and Chinese Spot-billed Ducks, all of which are at the approximate upper limit (1036-1100 g) for regularly taken prey of Peregrine Falcons (Ellis et al 2004, Olsen et al 2008.…”

“…Remains of prey that could not be positively identified in the field were brought to the laboratory and identified by examining the remaining parts such as heads, wings, legs, and feathers; some of the remains were compared to reference collections, live birds in bird banding stations, and to our own specimens from the study areas for identification (Oro andTella 1995, Ellis et al 2004). To avoid counting an individual bird twice, we cleaned the prey remains and feathers from the perching site or nests after sample collection, and used only diagnostic parts of prey to conservatively estimate the minimum number of individuals present (Oro and Tella 1995, Ellis et al 2004, Probst et al 2007, Olsen et al 2008. Because feathers in pellets were typically highly digested and abraded, only a few prey items with unique coloration and marks (such as the Black-naped Oriole [Oriolus chinensis]) were recognizable.…”

“…Statistical Analyses. Because prey biomass was not normally distributed, we calculated the geometric mean prey weight (GMPW) by log e -transformation of the mean masses of individual prey species prior to calculating the grand mean prey mass (Jaksić and Braker 1983, Marti et al 2007, Olsen et al 2008, Zuberogoitia et al 2013) and used the Kruskal-Wallis test (one-way analysis of variance on ranks) followed by pairwise multiple comparison procedures (Dunn's method) to compare GMPWs by season. We used SigmaPlot 12.0 (Systat Software Inc., San Jose, California, U.S.A.) for statistical analysis and data management.…”

Distinguishing offshore bird hunting from beach scavenging in archaeological contexts: The value of modern beach surveys

“…For instance, the relative lack of heads and legs in small-bodied birds (shorebirds, small ducks) combined with a higher prevalence of "wings-only" carcasses suggests raptor predation. Throughout coastal regions including along the NWC COASST region, Peregrine Falcons, Falco peregrinus, are known to prey preferentially on small seabirds, shorebirds and waterfowl (Garcia et al 2014;Olsen et al 2008), often leaving only wings at beach kill sites (Paine et al 1990). Clearly, archaeologists need to consider skeletal part patterns for individual taxa, not all birds together, when attempting to assess whether an assemblage was scavenged, and ideally with relatively large sample sizes (e.g.…”