Ecological Interactions between Bats and Nocturnal Birds

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Bats and about 230 species of birds are nocturnal and all rely to varying degrees on insects, insects and vertebrates, or fruit as principal food supplies. Bats appear effectively to dominate the aerial nocturnal adaptive zones of fruit and insect eating, although they are more effective as small rather than as large insectivores. In most tropical locations, either owls or bats are regular consumers of fish; bats which feed on terrestrial vertebrates and the bird families Podargidae, Aegothelidae, and Nyctibiidae seem to occupy the adaptive zone of small owls, but these bats and birds are limited anatomically from replacing larger owls. Bat hawks (Falco rufigularis and Macheiramphus alcinus) and some carnivorous bats may be the only regular aerial predators of bats. The use that many bats make of night roosts as locations for food consumption, and the nocturnal roosting habits of some diurnal birds may represent adaptations for avoid. ing nocturnal, volant predators.