Diet of the barn owl Tyto furcata (Strigiformes) in Mexico
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The study of the diet of organisms allows us to know part of their natural history, their prey and the environment with which they interact. The barn owl ( Tyto furcata ) regurgitates pellets with complete skeletons of its prey, for this reason and its wide geographical distribution its diet has been studied around the world. These studies have shown that the basis of this bird's diet consists mainly of small mammals, however, in some works they have reported the sporadic presence of other prey such as birds, reptiles and amphibians, and even invertebrates. In Mexico, multiple feeding studies of this species have been carried out in different areas, however, there is no national compilation of the mammals or other types of prey that this bird feeds on. The objective of this work was to know the species recorded in the literature that are part of the diet of this bird at the national and state level. The available literature on prey recorded in pellets of the Barn Owl in Mexico was reviewed. A total of 38 bibliographic references were obtained, with information from 60 collection sites in 19 states of the Mexican Republic, of these, 15 exclusively determine mammals and 23 mention other types of prey. The diet of this bird in Mexico consists of 165 species, 119 genera, 62 families and 28 orders, including mammals, birds, arthropods and plants.
Language: English
Topic: Avian ecology and behavior
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225793097
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