Using Diet Information to Improve Habitat Quality
To understand the trajectory of relationships between birds and their habitat, we require a comprehensive understanding of bird diet and prey variation. To date however, we have minimal, unbiased data on adult bird diets. There are a myriad of different approaches that ecologists have used to describe and quantify bird diets. In the past, diets have been assessed using highly invasive techniques such as stomach dissection or emetics. These techniques can be prone to bias towards large or non-digestible food items or cause undue stress individuals. Video and photography have also been used, however, their utility is most useful during the nest provisioning stage or when prey items are large and require manipulation. New methods such as DNA-sequencing and stable isotopes are powerful, non-invasive, and cost effective techniques to assess prey communities ad trophic position that make up the diets of birds and has recently become easier and more cost-effective to perform. Blood and fecal material can be acquired easily from captured birds by holding them until samples can be acquired. This small amount of material can supply extensive information on the specific species of insects that have been eaten and metabolized.
As a side project to my dissertation work, I will be comparing assessments of Carolina chickadee diet using multiple contemporary and historical sources in order to 1) describe diet requirements and prey variation in this species and 2) compare and contrast different methods of assessing diet.
As a side project to my dissertation work, I will be comparing assessments of Carolina chickadee diet using multiple contemporary and historical sources in order to 1) describe diet requirements and prey variation in this species and 2) compare and contrast different methods of assessing diet.
Historical Resources used for Chickadee Diet
Contemporary Sources
- Bent, Arthur Cleveland. Life histories of North American jays, crows, and titmice. Dover Publications, 1947.
- Brewer, R. (1963). Ecological and reproductive relationships of Black-capped and Carolina chickadees. The Auk, 9-47.
- Cooper, RJ. 1988. Dietary Relationships Among Insectivorous Birds of an Eastern Deciduous Forest. WVU Dissertation.
- Martin, AC, Zim HS, and Nelson AL. American Wildlife & Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits: The Use of Trees, Shrubs, Weeds, and Herbs by Birds and Mammals of the United States. Courier Corporation, 1961.
- Mostrom et al. Carolina Chickadee. Birds of North America
Contemporary Sources
- Stomach Dissection
- Video
- Stable Isotopes
- DNA sequencing
