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Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) diet and prey selection as assessed by the analysis of pellets collected under resting sites (River Ticino, north Italy)

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Abstract

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.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by “Parco Lombardo della Valle del Ticino” and “Ente di Gestione delle Aree Protette del Ticino e del Lago Maggiore”. Thanks to Valentina Parco, Silvia Nicola and Cristina Poma (Parco Lombardo della Valle del Ticino) and Paola Trovò (Ente di Gestione delle Aree Protette del Ticino e del Lago Maggiore). The authors are grateful to the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, Arcadia and Fondation Segré for founding the Endangered Landscape Program “Restoring the Ticino River Basin Landscape. One River – Many Systems – One Landscape”. Martin Čech and an anonymous reviewer helped to improve the first draft of the manuscript.

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Environmental Sciences and Policy, University of Milan, via Celoria 26, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Alessandro Nessi, Alessandro Balestrieri, Anna Winkler & Paolo Tremolada

  2. GRAIA Srl Gestione Ricerca Ambientale Ittica Acque, via Repubblica 1, 21020, Varano Borghi, Italy

    Andrea Guglielmo Casoni

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  1. Alessandro Nessi
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  3. Anna Winkler
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  4. Andrea Guglielmo Casoni
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Alessandro Nessi was involved in conceptualisation, data curation, formal analysis (equal) and writing—original draft preparation. Paolo Tremolada was involved in formal analysis (equal), methodology, project administration (equal), resources, supervision (equal) and writing—review and editing (equal). Alessandro Balestrieri was involved in formal analysis (equal), project administration (equal), supervision (equal) and writing—review and editing (equal). Winkler was involved in validation and writing—review and editing (equal). Guglielmo Casoni was involved in resources and writing—review and editing (equal).

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Nessi, A., Balestrieri, A., Winkler, A. et al. Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) diet and prey selection as assessed by the analysis of pellets collected under resting sites (River Ticino, north Italy). Aquat Ecol 55, 135–147 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-020-09817-2

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