The diet of the kingfisher Alcedo atthis is usually studied by collecting pellet pools from the nest after breeding. This collecting method is very efficient but has some drawbacks which include invasiveness and restriction to the reproductive period. To overcome these limits, here we propose the collection of pellets under resting sites. Although requiring a large number of surveys to find suitable resting sites and obtain sufficient sample size, this method is minimally invasive and allows a precise estimate of the relative frequency of prey items per pellet and the assessment of kingfisher diet also outside the breeding period. The methodology was applied to an Italian kingfisher population (River Ticino, northern Italy) between March and October 2019. Resting sites were identified in 15 out of 54 sampling stations, from which 133 pellets were collected. By comparing diagnostic remains, 478 preyed individuals were identified including mainly fish (94.4%) ranging in total length between 21 and 105 mm. Fish availability of the River was assessed. The fish community included 49 species, of which 22 (45%) were non-native. Kingfishers preyed on the most widespread and abundant native species, while the contribution of exotic fish was lower than expected. However, the overall consistency of prey use and availability suggests that the analysis of kingfisher pellets represents an additional method for monitoring the composition of freshwater fish communities and man-induced changes across broad geographical scales.

的翠鸟饮食普通翠鸟通常通过繁殖后从巢中收集颗粒池进行研究。该收集方法非常有效，但是具有一些缺点，包括侵袭性和对生殖期的限制。为了克服这些限制，在这里我们建议在休息地点收集颗粒。尽管需要进行大量调查才能找到合适的休息地点并获得足够的样本量，但是该方法具有最小的侵入性，并且可以精确估计每个颗粒中的捕食对象的相对频率，并且还可以在繁殖期之外评估翠鸟的饮食。该方法已应用于2019年3月至10月之间的意大利翠鸟种群（意大利北部的提契诺州河）。在54个采样站中的15个中确定了休憩地点，从中收集了133个颗粒。通过比较诊断性遗骸，确定了478个被捕食的个体，主要包括鱼类（94.4％），总长度在21至105毫米之间。评估了河流的鱼类供应量。鱼类群落包括49种，其中22种（45％）是非本地的。翠鸟捕食最广泛和最丰富的本地物种，而外来鱼类的贡献低于预期。然而，猎物使用和可获得性的总体一致性表明，对翠鸟颗粒的分析是监测淡水鱼群落组成和人为因素在广泛地理范围内变化的另一种方法。鱼类群落包括49种，其中22种（45％）是非本地的。翠鸟捕食最广泛和最丰富的本地物种，而外来鱼类的贡献低于预期。然而，猎物使用和可获得性的总体一致性表明，对翠鸟颗粒的分析是监测淡水鱼群落组成和人为因素在广泛地理范围内变化的另一种方法。鱼类群落包括49种，其中22种（45％）是非本地的。翠鸟捕食最广泛和最丰富的本地物种，而外来鱼类的贡献低于预期。然而，猎物使用和可获得性的总体一致性表明，对翠鸟颗粒的分析是监测淡水鱼群落组成和人为因素在广泛地理范围内变化的另一种方法。