Metabolic routing of dietary nutrients in birds: Effects of diet quality and macronutrient composition revealed using stable isotopes

During fall migration many songbirds switch from consuming primarily insects to consuming mostly fruit. Fruits with more carbohydrates and less protein may be sufficient to rebuild expended fat stores, but such fruits may be inadequate to replace catabolized protein. We manipulated the concentrations and isotopic signatures of macronutrients in diets fed to birds to study the effects of diet quality on metabolic routing of dietary nutrients. We estimated that approximately 45% and 75%, respectively, of the carbon in proteinaceous tissue of birds switched to high- or low-protein diets came from nonprotein dietary sources. In contrast, we estimated that approximately 100% and 20%-80%, respectively, of the nitrogen in proteinaceous tissues of birds switched to high- or low-protein diets was attributable to dietary protein. Thus, the routing and assimilation of dietary carbon and nitrogen differed depending on diet composition. As a result, delta N-15 of tissues collected from wild animals that consume high- quality diets may reliably indicate the dietary protein source, whereas delta C-13 of these same tissues is likely the product of metabolic routing of carbon from several macronutrients. These results have implications for how isotopic discrimination is best estimated and how we can study macronutrient routing in wild animals.