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Weed seeds, not grain, contribute to the diet of wintering skylarks in arable farmlands of Western France

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Abstract

Assessing the diet of farmland birds during the wintering period has important implications for conservation. However, for some species such as the skylark, the diet composition remains poorly known across its wintering range. On the basis of gizzards collected in mid-winter over a 10-year interval and in two regions of Western France, we quantified the contribution of seeds and investigated whether the diet differed between sexes, regions and period and whether seeds entered the diet with respect to their size, nutritive value or their spring occurrence within the farmland landscape. Also, the amount of seeds that birds need to consume for meeting their daily energy requirements was assessed by simulation and compared with estimates measured in captive individuals. Thirty-eight seed species belonging to 16 families were identified in gizzards. All species but one were weeds, and cereal grains were absent from all gizzards. The diet differed slightly between sexes but contrasted between regions and periods. We found no clear evidence for a selective intake based on seed traits. Conversely, our results suggest that weed seeds would enter the diet with respect to their relative occurrence. Our simulation indicated that birds should ingest about 8 g (4200–5600 seeds) to meet their daily requirements. A mean value of 6.7 g per day was measured in captive skylarks. These results suggest that the maintenance of rich weed habitats is a crucial issue for populations of skylarks that overwinter in agricultural landscapes of Western France.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from ANR STRA- 08-02 “Agroecological management of arable weeds” and from ANR AGROBIOSE (ANR-13-AGRO-0001). We thank Yoan Vadot for his help in preparing gizzards and Fabien Dortel for his help in seed identification. We are grateful to Hervé Bidault, Hervé Lormée, Jean-Marie and Jacques Boutin, Anthony Levesque and Vincent Rocheteau, La Fédération des Chasseurs du Tarn-et-Garonne (Frédéric Le Capitaine) and La Fédération des Chasseurs des Deux-Sèvres (Dominique Vincendeau, David Berthonneau and Bertrand Brunet), for collecting gizzards. Early drafts were improved by Guillaume Fried. All experiments were performed with governmental authorisations from the Préfecture des Deux-Sèvres (Niort, France, no. 79-219) and were carried out in compliance with French legal requirements and with the permission of the National Conservation Authority (no. 79349). Captures were allowed by permit “Arrêté no. 2009-014”, Préfecture de Paris. We are grateful to the editor and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, CNERA Avifaune migratrice, 79360, Villiers-en-bois, France

    Cyril Eraud & Thibaut Powolny

  2. INRA, UMR 1347 Agroécologie, 17 rue Sully, 21065, Dijon cedex, France

    Emilie Cadet & Sabrina Gaba

  3. Laboratoire Biogéosciences, Equipe Ecologie Evolutive, UMR CNRS 6282, Université de Bourgogne, 6 boulevard Gabriel, 21000, Dijon, France

    François Bretagnolle

  4. UMR 5175 CEFE-CNRS, 1919 route de Mende, 34293, Montpellier 5, France

    François Bretagnolle

  5. Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372, CNRS, Université de La Rochelle, 79360, Villiers en bois, France

    Thibaut Powolny & Vincent Bretagnolle

Authors
  1. Cyril Eraud
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  2. Emilie Cadet
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  3. Thibaut Powolny
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  4. Sabrina Gaba
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  5. François Bretagnolle
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  6. Vincent Bretagnolle
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cyril Eraud.

Additional information

Communicated by P. Acevedo

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1

Detail of gizzards content (txt format; comma delimited) (TXT 69 kb)

Online Resource 2

Size, weight, volume and abundance of the weed seeds consumed by wintering skylarks in Western France. (PDF 19.6 kb)

Online Resource 3

Major constituents and estimated energy content of the seeds consumed by wintering skylarks in Western France. (PDF 18.8 kb)

Online Resource 4

Pearson’s correlation coefficients measuring the relationship between seed traits and their contribution to the diet of skylarks. (PDF 8.38 kb)

Online Resource 5

Detail of the data and the calculations used in simulating daily food intake on the basis of gizzards content. (PDF 25 kb)

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Eraud, C., Cadet, E., Powolny, T. et al. Weed seeds, not grain, contribute to the diet of wintering skylarks in arable farmlands of Western France. Eur J Wildl Res 61, 151–161 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-014-0888-y

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