Baseline spatiotemporal patterns in the invertebrate diet of tree sparrow (Passer montanus) chicks revealing using DNA metabarcoding

Baker, Hannah L, Prior, Matt, Stenhouse, Ewan H, Baldwin, Amy, Workman, Trudy and Goodenough, Anne E ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7662-6670 Baseline spatiotemporal patterns in the invertebrate diet of tree sparrow (Passer montanus) chicks revealing using DNA metabarcoding. Bird Study. (In Press)

Text (Peer-reviewed version) 16461 Goodenough (2026) Baseline spatiotemporal patterns in the invertebrate.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only (Publisher Embargo). Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 4.0. Download (1MB)

Abstract

Capsule DNA metabarcoding revealed that the diet of Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) chicks at three sites in the UK was dominated by ground beetles, suggesting parental foraging was predominantly ground-based. Aims An estimated 80-90% of bird species in temperate environments rely on invertebrates as a food resource, so widespread and substantial declines in invertebrate biomass are important in the context of avian conservation. The Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) is a specialist farmland bird in the UK that has a wide dietary niche for most of the year, but relies on invertebrates to feed chicks. Here, we present the first molecular analysis of the diet of nestling Tree Sparrows using DNA high-throughput sequencing and metabarcoding. Methods We collected faeces from chicks at three sites on the Marlborough Downs (UK) during the 2024 breeding season and successfully extracted and identified invertebrate DNA from 59 samples by amplifying the cytochrome-c oxidase subunit-I (COI) region. Results In total, 22 invertebrate species from five Orders (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera and Araneae) were identified. Samples were dominated by Coleoptera (73.11% prevalence), with the ground beetles Pterostichus melanarius and Poecilus cupreus being the most common individual species (detected in 22.58% and 12.93% of samples, respectively). The number of invertebrate species per faecal sample was low, suggesting that parents were feeding chicks repeatedly the same species and/or very short gut retention times in chicks. Conclusion Our results suggest that parental foraging was primarily ground based, indicating the importance of bare ground, or sparce and short vegetation, in foraging areas during the breeding season. There were significant spatiotemporal patterns in dietary composition of sampled chicks between sites and habitats, indicating the importance of microhabitats and cropping patterns. We discuss the importance of these findings in relation to Tree Sparrow conservation efforts.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Insectivorous passerines; Diet composition; Faecal sampling; High-throughput sequencing; Molecular techniques
Related records:	Dataset for Baseline spatiotemporal patt...
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QL Zoology > QL605 Chordates. Vertebrates > QL671-699 Birds
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Education, Health and Sciences
Depositing User:	Rhiannon Goodland
Date Deposited:	04 Aug 2026 08:03
Last Modified:	04 Aug 2026 11:00
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/16461

University Staff: Request a correction | Repository Editors: Update this record