Notes on the Diet and Feeding Behaviour of Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia)
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The State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology,The State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology,The State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology,

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    Abstract:

    The Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia) is wide spread in South and East Asia but little was known about its reproductive feeding behaviour, particularly in China. The main objective of this study is to assess and evaluate the diet and feeding activity of the owls during reproductive season. The work was conducted in an experimental wood of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China in 2012 and 2013 by means of infrared video-recording, with each year one nest being recorded. Food types were recorded and feeding rhythm of the owls was analyzed with ANOVA and Student-Newman-Keuls post-hoc for multiple-level comparison. According to 613 records which we could identify the type of food from the videos, we found that the food items delivered to the owlets were composed of maily insects belonging to Orthoptera (62%) and Lepidoptera (18%), and non-insect invertebrates such as Araneae (8%) and Chilopoda (7%), and small terrestrial vertebrates (3%) such as rodents and geckos. The overall feeding rhythm of delivering food items by parent owls was varied significantly, with three feeding peaks at 19:00﹣20:00, 21:00﹣22:00 after sunset and 04:00﹣05:00 before sunrise (Fig. 1). With this study, we confirmed that insects are the most important food Scops Owls during breeding period and the peak time of active feeding of Scops Owls is during dusk and dawn food of Scops.

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Eve V. Fernandez, LIU Chun-Hong, ZHOU Meng-Yan, LI Zhong-Qiu. 2016. Notes on the Diet and Feeding Behaviour of Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia). Chinese Journal of Zoology, 51(6): 1106-1109.

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History
  • Received:March 12,2016
  • Revised:November 10,2016
  • Adopted:June 16,2016
  • Online: November 28,2016
  • Published: