Baker, Hannah L., Prior, Matt, Stenhouse, Ewan H.  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2524-1914, Baldwin, Amy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2162-3771, Workman, Trudy and Goodenough, Anne E.
2026.
Baseline spatiotemporal patterns in the invertebrate diet of Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus chicks revealed using DNA metabarcoding.
Bird Study
10.1080/00063657.2026.2727683
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Abstract
Capsule DNA metabarcoding revealed that the diet of Eurasian Tree Sparrow chicks at three sites in the UK was dominated by ground beetles Carabidae, suggesting parental foraging was predominantly ground-based. Aims Most bird species in temperate environments rely on invertebrates as a food resource, so widespread and substantial invertebrate declines are important in the context of avian conservation. The Eurasian Tree Sparrow, a specialist farmland bird in the UK, has a wide dietary niche for most of the year but relies on invertebrates to feed its chicks. We present the first molecular analysis of the diet of nestling Eurasian Tree Sparrows using DNA high-throughput sequencing and metabarcoding. Methods We collected faeces from chicks at three sites on the Marlborough Downs (Wiltshire, UK) during the 2024 breeding season and successfully extracted and identified invertebrate DNA from 59 samples by amplifying the cytochrome-c oxidase subunit-I (COI) region. Results In total, 22 invertebrate species from five orders (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera and Araneae) were identified. Samples were dominated by Coleoptera (73.1% prevalence), with the ground beetles Pterostichus melanarius and Poecilus cupreus being the most common species (detected in 22.6% and 12.9% of samples, respectively). The number of invertebrate species per faecal sample was low, suggesting that parents were feeding chicks repeatedly the same species, and/or very short gut retention times in chicks. Conclusion Our results suggest that parental foraging was primarily ground-based, indicating the importance of bare ground, or sparce and short vegetation, in foraging areas during the breeding season. There were significant spatiotemporal patterns in dietary composition of sampled chicks between sites and habitats, indicating the importance of microhabitats and cropping patterns. We discuss the importance of these findings in relation to Eurasian Tree Sparrow conservation efforts.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Published Online |
| Status: | In Press |
| Schools: | Schools > Biosciences |
| Publisher: | Taylor and Francis Group |
| ISSN: | 0006-3657 |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 5 August 2026 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 9 July 2026 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Sep 2026 15:46 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/188749 |
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