Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Garcia-del-Rey E., Collins C.T. & Volpone N.W. (2010) Food composition of the endemic Plain Swift Apus unicolor in the Canary Islands (Macaronesia). ARDEA 98 (2): 211-215
As a first step to investigate the foraging ecology of the Plain Swift Apus unicolor in the Canary Islands, we studied the food brought to the nestlings. A total of 12,800 aerial prey items were identified from 32 food boluses. 97.3% of the prey items were insects, most of which (96%) were from the orders Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera. Other orders represented were Dermaptera, Ephemeroptera, Lepidoptera, Mecoptera, Psocoptera and Thysanoptera. Spiders made up 2.6% of the prey items. Prey sizes ranged from 0.5 mm (body length) to 9.7 mm (average 2.46 mm, SD 0.90). There was substantial variation in the prey types among the 32 food boluses, both at the level of orders and of families. Prey size was more similar among the boluses suggesting that prey size was more important than prey type to the swifts. The results are in agreement with previous studies of swift diets.


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