An avivore is a specialized predator of birds, with birds making up a large proportion of its diet. Such bird-eating animals come from a range of groups.
An avivore is a specialized predator of birds, with birds making up a large proportion of its diet. Such bird-eating animals come from a range of groups.
Birds that are specialized predators of other birds include certain falcons and accipiters. General features of avian avivores include a skull form which is well adapted for grasping and crushing with the beak, although not especially well structured for neck twisting motions. [1] Bird-eating raptors also tend to show greater sexual dimorphism than other raptors, with the females being larger than the males. [2]
Some avian avivores such as the shikra, besra, Eurasian sparrowhawk, and sharp-shinned hawk catch their prey by flying from cover in a tree or bush, taking their prey unawares. In contrast, the lanner falcon hunts in open country taking birds by horizontal pursuit. The aplomado falcon will use both ambush and more extended flights. [3] The peregrine falcon dives on flying birds from a great height at speeds that can exceed 300 km/h.
The extinct Haast's eagle of New Zealand preyed on the large flightless bird species of the region such as the moa.
In certain biotopes, birds constitute the bulk of the diet of various carnivorans, e.g., of adult leopard seals that mostly prey on penguins, the Arctic fox living in coastal areas where colonies of murres, auks, gulls and other seabirds abound and stoats in New Zealand against whom flightless birds like the takahe and kiwi are defenseless. Other avivore mammals who occasionally prey on birds include most carnivora; a number of primates ranging from lorises and night monkeys over baboons and chimpanzees to humans; orcas; opossums and other marsupials; rats and other rodents; hedgehogs and other insectivora and bats.
A number of mammal species are specialized predators of birds. The caracal and the serval, both medium-sized cats, are known for their leaping ability which they use to catch flying birds, sometimes two at a time. Domestic cats may at times become specialists as bird-killers if other prey is unavailable. Some carnivora, including the red fox and martens, are known for engaging in surplus killing of birds. Kruuk (1972) observed that four red foxes killed 230 black-headed gulls in one night in a single colony at the Cumberland coast while fewer than 3% of the gulls showed any sign of being eaten. The greater noctule bat is believed to predate small migrating birds on the wing in the skies of Southern Europe.
Many mammals, such as squirrels, monkeys, and pine martens, also feed on bird eggs and young when they get the chance.
The fanged frog Limnonectes megastomias preys on birds and insects. [4]
Various groups of arthropod have been observed to be avivorous, however birds do not make up a majority of the diets of any arthropod; a strict avivore among the arthropods has not been discovered.
The Goliath birdeater ( Theraphosa blondi ) is reputed to be an avivore (hence the name), but it rarely preys on birds. [5] [6] However, other species of spider have been observed to consume birds that they capture; large orb-weaving spiders, such as the golden orbweavers, have been observed to consume small birds such as mannikin and other finches. [7] [8] An Avicularia , another species of tarantula, has also been recorded to consume a bird. [9]
The Phillip island centipede ( Cormocephalus coynei ) has been dubbed as a "giant bird-eating centipede"; it may consume petrel chicks ( Pterodroma nigripennis ) at a rate between ~2100 and ~3730 nestlings per year, across the island's population of centipedes. It has been theorized that the centipede was able to enter this ecological niche due to the absence of endemic mammalian predators on the island. [10] [11]
Praying mantises (Mantodea) are well documented in catching and consuming hummingbirds of a similar mass; the ruby-throated hummingbird is often preyed upon. [12] In addition, other types of birds also fall prey to mantises, such as warblers, sunbirds, honeyeaters, flycatchers, vireos and european robins. [13] [14]
Avivorous mantid genera include: [14]
A coconut crab ( Birgus latro ) was filmed ambushing a sleeping red-footed booby, shattering wing bones on both wings with its claws, and consuming it along with 5 other coconut crabs, which were perhaps attracted by the commotion and scent of blood. [15] [16]
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation and parasitoidism. It is distinct from scavenging on dead prey, though many predators also scavenge; it overlaps with herbivory, as seed predators and destructive frugivores are predators.
Centipedes are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda, an arthropod group which includes millipedes and other multi-legged animals. Centipedes are elongated segmented (metameric) creatures with one pair of legs per body segment. All centipedes are venomous and can inflict painful stings, injecting their venom through pincer-like appendages known as forcipules or toxicognaths, which are actually modified legs instead of fangs. Despite the name, no centipede has exactly 100 legs; the number of pairs of legs is an odd number that ranges from 15 pairs to 191 pairs.
An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects.
The ruby-throated hummingbird is a species of hummingbird that generally spends the winter in Central America, Mexico, and Florida, and migrates to Canada and other parts of Eastern North America for the summer to breed. It is the most common hummingbird in eastern North America, having population estimates of about 35 million in 2021.
The Trials of Life: A Natural History of Behaviour is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 3 October 1990.
The Chinese mantis is a species of mantis native to Asia and the nearby islands. In 1896, this species was accidentally introduced by a nursery tender at Mt. Airy near Philadelphia, United States. Tenodera sinensis often is erroneously referred to as Tenodera aridifolia sinensis because it was at first described as a subspecies of Tenodera aridifolia, but Tenodera sinensis is now established as a full species.
The Goliath birdeater belongs to the tarantula family Theraphosidae. Found in northern South America, it is the largest spider in the world by mass and body length, and second to the giant huntsman spider by leg span. It is also called the Goliath tarantula or Goliath bird-eating spider; the practice of calling theraphosids "bird-eating" derives from an early 18th-century copper engraving by Maria Sibylla Merian that shows one eating a hummingbird. Despite the spider's name, it rarely preys on birds.
The aplomado falcon is a medium-sized falcon of the Americas. The species' largest continuous range is in South America, but not in the deep interior Amazon Basin. It was long known as Falco fusco-coerulescens or Falco fuscocaerulescens, but these names are now believed to refer to the bat falcon. Its resemblance in shape to the hobbies accounts for its old name orange-chested hobby. Aplomado is an unusual Spanish word for "lead-colored", referring to the blue-grey areas of the plumage – an approximate English translation would be "plumbeous falcon". Spanish names for the species include halcón aplomado and halcón fajado ; in Brazil it is known as falcão-de-coleira.
The World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, is the headquarters for The Peregrine Fund, an international non-profit organization founded in 1970 that conserves endangered raptors around the world.
Scolopendra gigantea, also known as the Peruvian giant yellow-leg centipede or Amazonian giant centipede, is a centipede in the genus Scolopendra. It is the largest centipede species in the world, with a length exceeding 30 centimetres (12 in). Specimens may have 21 or 23 segments. It is found in various places throughout South America and the extreme south Caribbean, where it preys on a wide variety of animals, including other sizable arthropods, amphibians, mammals and reptiles.
Hierodula membranacea is a large praying mantis, sharing its common name giant Asian mantis with other large members of genus Hierodula: of which it is the type species. Its colours vary from green to yellow-green, or even brown to reddish-brown, similar to those of the giant Indian mantis and the giant Malaysian mantis. As the name suggests, it originates from south-eastern Asia and is among the largest of mantises. Male and female adults reach around 7–9 centimetres (2.8–3.5 in), excluding extended forelegs. It is a cannibalistic species, with the females sometimes eating the males after mating.
Ambush predators or sit-and-wait predators are carnivorous animals that capture their prey via stealth, luring or by strategies utilizing an element of surprise. Unlike pursuit predators, who chase to capture prey using sheer speed or endurance, ambush predators avoid fatigue by staying in concealment, waiting patiently for the prey to get near, before launching a sudden overwhelming attack that quickly incapacitates and captures the prey.
Gleaning is a feeding strategy by birds in which they catch invertebrate prey, mainly arthropods, by plucking them from foliage or the ground, from crevices such as rock faces and under the eaves of houses, or even, as in the case of ticks and lice, from living animals. This behavior is contrasted with hawking insects from the air or chasing after moving insects such as ants. Gleaning, in birds, does not refer to foraging for seeds or fruit.
The black-winged petrel is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It breeds on a number of oceanic islands in the tropical and subtropical East Pacific Ocean and spends the rest of the year at sea.
Choeradodis rhombicollis, or Peruvian shield mantis, is a species of praying mantis native to North America, Central America, and South America. It is found in Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Suriname.
The coconut crab is a terrestrial species of giant hermit crab, and is also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest terrestrial arthropod known, with a weight of up to 4.1 kg (9 lb). The distance from the tip of one leg to the tip of another can be as wide as 1 m. It is found on islands across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as far east as the Gambier Islands, Pitcairn Islands and Caroline Island and as far west as Zanzibar. While its range broadly shadows the distribution of the coconut palm, the coconut crab has been extirpated from most areas with a significant human population such as mainland Australia and Madagascar.
Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They have triangular heads with bulging eyes supported on flexible necks. Their elongated bodies may or may not have wings, but all Mantodea have forelegs that are greatly enlarged and adapted for catching and gripping prey; their upright posture, while remaining stationary with forearms folded, has led to the common name praying mantis.
Deadly... is a strand of British wildlife documentary programming aimed principally at children and young people, which is broadcast on CBBC on BBC One and Two and on the CBBC Channel. It is presented by Steve Backshall, with Naomi Wilkinson as co-host on Live 'n Deadly, and Barney Harwood as co-host on Natural Born Hunters. The strand began with a single series known as Deadly 60, and has subsequently expanded into a number of spin-offs, re-edits and follow-up versions.
Structures built by non-human animals, often called animal architecture, are common in many species. Examples of animal structures include termite mounds, ant hills, wasp and beehives, burrow complexes, beaver dams, elaborate nests of birds, and webs of spiders.
Cormocephalus coynei is a species of centipede found on the uninhabited Phillip and Nepean islands to the south of Norfolk Island. It is also known as the Phillip Island centipede. The species was observed on Phillip Island in 1792, but was not formally described until 1984. It can grow up to 23.5 cm, and is reddish brown and orange in colour. The Phillip Island centipede is known for its habit of preying on vertebrates including geckos, skinks, black-winged petrel nestlings, and fish, as well as other small arthropods. The centipede may consume petrel chicks at a rate between ~2100 and ~3730 nestlings per year, across the island's population of centipedes. It is theorized that the centipede was able to enter this ecological niche due to the absence of endemic mammalian predators on the island.
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