Feeding ecology of a highly aerial bird during its long breeding season

Abstract

Pallid Swifts (Apus pallidus), as other swifts, are birds extremely adapted to an aerial lifestyle, showing unique adaptations that allow them to fly almost continuously. The diet of these non-stopping high-altitudinal aerial birds has been mostly studied through techniques that fail to produce highly resolved prey identifications, and for that have been replaced by molecular techniques, such as DNA metabarcoding. Faecal samples of Pallid Swifts were monthly collected from a colony in the north of Portugal during the breeding season. DNA from the faecal samples was used to sex the birds and to identify the arthropods present in the diet through DNA metabarcoding. From the detected prey items, 74 families were identified belonging to 16 orders, with Hymenoptera and Hemiptera being the most frequently consumed. There were seasonal variations in diet richness, composition and prey size. Regarding the diet of males and females, although no differences were found between the diet of males and females in terms of composition and richness, there were differences in the size of arthropods preyed by the different sexes, with males feeding on larger arthropods. The large seasonal variation in Pallid Swifts' diet during the breeding season is probably a result of spatiotemporal variation in aerial prey, of which swifts likely predate opportunistically. Although no significant differences were detected in diet richness and composition between sexes, the fact that males consumed larger prey may suggest the existence of sexual dietary segregation in this group of birds. At last, several pest species were found in these swifts’ diet, which, if studied through DNA metabarcoding, can be used to monitor small arthropods, including airborne pests.