Diet of birds: assessing the stomach contents of some Neotropical species

The diet of a species is directly related to its physiological, morphological, and behavioral adaptations. So, studies of vertebrate diet are important for understanding its natural history and elucidating its intra- and interspecific interactions. The objective of this study was to classify the diets of some Neotropical birds. Each diet was determined by analyzing the stomach contents of the collected individuals. We analyzed the stomachs of 46 individuals belonging to 31 species of 16 families. We identified 2148 food items, of which 1761 were vegetables (seeds and fruits) and 389 were arthropods. The most consumed animal group was Coleoptera (49.1%), followed by Hemiptera (20.8%) and Hymenoptera (non-Formicidae) (16.7%). Species with exclusively arthropod diets were the majority. Only two species were exclusively frugivorous, while seven were mainly frugivorous with arthropods as a secondary food source, and four were mainly insectivorous with fruits as a secondary food source.

Automated summary

The diet of a species is closely related to its physiological, morphological, and behavioral adaptations. This study classified the diets of Neotropical birds by analyzing the stomach contents of collected individuals. The results showed that the majority of the species had exclusively arthropod diets, with Coleoptera being the most consumed animal group. There were also species with exclusively frugivorous diets and species that mainly consumed fruits with arthropods or insects as secondary food sources.