Field camera-trapping study reveals active prey selection and sex-specific foraging in Red-backed Shrikes, highlighting the conservation need for diverse grassland arthropods.
Key Points
To investigate diet composition, sex-related dietary differences, and prey selection relative to local prey availability in breeding Red-backed Shrikes (Lanius collurio).
Monitored 18 individually colour-ringed shrikes using automated camera traps at artificial perches across three breeding seasons (2021–2023) in a montane grassland of the central Italian Apennines.
Identified 2,968 predation events to fine taxonomic resolution across 12 arthropod orders, 52 families, 55 genera, and 48 species.
Analyzed the effects of sex and perch location on diet composition using multivariate statistics and compared prey use against local availability.
Orthoptera dominated the diet, followed by Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Araneae, and Lepidoptera, with significant sex-related dietary variation: males preferred large Ensifera, bumblebees, and spiders, while females took smaller orthopterans and solitary bees.
Shrikes actively selected Ensiferan orthopterans and melolonthid beetles over their local availability, whereas abundant taxa such as honeybees and pierid butterflies were avoided.