The diet of Monk Parakeet Myiopsitta monachus nestlings in an urban area: a study using stable isotopes

ABSTRACT

Capsule:

Previous observations in Barcelona and other cities showed that approximately 40% of the food ingested by adult Monk Parakeets Myiopsitta monachus is of anthropogenic origin. Here we show that this type of food source is also used for feeding nestlings.

Aims:

To quantify the proportion of anthropogenic food within the diet of nestling Monk Parakeets, a non-native species in Barcelona.

Methods:

We analysed stable isotopes of ¹³C and ¹⁵N in feathers of Monk Parakeet nestlings collected in the Barcelona city area. We also sampled potential food sources ingested by Monk Parakeets to reconstruct the nestling diet using Bayesian mixing models with MixSIAR.

Results:

Almost 30% of the nestlings’ diet was composed of anthropogenic food.

Conclusions:

Since food availability is a major factor regulating population growth, we propose educating the general public to reduce the food supply for the species and ultimately limit its population growth.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Jéssica Borrego and Pilar Rubio for their help in laboratory processes. The authors thank Victor Peracho from Agencia de Salut Pública de Barcelona for his support. Birds were captured and handled with special permission EPI 7/2015 (01529/1498/2015) from Direcció General del Medi Natural i Biodiversitat, Generalitat de Catalunya, following Catalan regional ethical guidelines for the handling of birds. JCS had special authorization 001501-0402.2009 for the handling of animals in research from Servei de Protecció de la Fauna, Flora i Animal de Companyia, according to Decret 214/1997/30.07, Generalitat de Catalunya. Rings to mark the birds were provided by the Institut Català d'Ornitologia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The present study was funded by CGL-2020 PID2020-114907GB-C21 research project to JCS from the Spanish Research Council (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation).