Abstract
The White-naped Jay Cyanocorax cyanopogon (Wied, 1821) is an omnivorous and opportunistic species, with a multifarious diet. In view of the scarcity of available data in the literature, the aim was to investigate and describe the bird's diet, location of food items, foraging tactics, actual feeding behavior and intraspecific interactions, as a means of defining the items consumed. The study was carried out in a Cerrado area in the Araguaia Campus of the Federal University of Mato Grosso - UFMT, in Pontal do Araguaia, Mato Grosso State, Brazil, from August to December, 2006, and from April to October, 2010. All the feeding events were recorded through 136 hours of animal focal sampling, whereby it was shown that these birds predominantly consume animal nutrients, replenished by vegetable items and human food-waste. Arthropods were predominant in the diet, with ants as the most abundant and frequent item. The fruits, flowers and seeds of eleven plant species were also consumed. Food-waste, representing about 1/10 of the total, was constantly consumed even when other food sources were available. Although active among the various strata, foraging is mainly on the ground. In the event of food-scarcity, the strategy employed is the hierarchical deployment of the members of various-sized groups, with the avoidance of direct competition. This versatility during all seasons, confirms total adaptation to the anthropic environment surrounded by native habitats that characterized the study site.
Highlights
The Corvidae, a family of medium to large-sized Passeriformes species, is mainly composed of crows and jays, which occur worldwide, except at the poles
The animal food mainly consisted of arthropods belonging to the subphyla Cheliceriformes (Arachnida) and Hexapoda (Insecta), earthworms (Filo Annelida) were consumed (Table 1)
When unidentifiable through direct observation, insect larvae and those of other arthropods were included in a separate category (Table 1)
Summary
The Corvidae, a family of medium to large-sized Passeriformes species, is mainly composed of crows and jays, which occur worldwide, except at the poles. Corvids are large-brained birds, whereby the capacity for developing various social strategies (Emery and Clayton, 2004), exploiting a wide variety of food resources (Goodwin, 1986), and burying food, even during times of abundance (De Kort et al, 2005). As omnivores, they feed on invertebrates, fruits, reptiles, amphibians, small birds and mammals, the eggs and chicks of other species, and carcasses (Sick, 1997). They present great variability in diet through spatial variation (Lefebvre et al, 1998), diversity in feeding strategies, the capacity to exploit each stratum, from the ground to the treetops (Sick, 1997), and a facility in using the beak and feet for food manipulation (Zusi, 1987)
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Schedule a callMore From: Brazilian journal of biology = Revista brasleira de biologia
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