Non-destructive Methods to Determine the Diets of Birds
| Posted: |
06/10/2021 |
| Author(s): |
Hugh A. Ford, Neville Forde, Susan Harrington |
We discuss a variety of methods of collecting information on the diets of birds,
includmg observation, examination of faeces, emetics and stomach-flushing. Stomach-flushing
is described in detail. We believe it has certain advantages over other methods;
it samples food from the upper parts of the gut before most digestion has occurred
and incurs very low mortality. Advantages over collection of birds are that the same
individuals can be resampled and birds that are being studied ecologically and behaviourally
can also be sampled. It also overcomes the ethical objections to killing large
numbers of birds.
Identification and analysis of samples are briefly discussed.
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