Diet composition and prey diversity of Tengmalm’s owl Aegolius funereus (Linnaeus, 1758; Aves: Strigidae) in central Serbia during breeding

Abstract

The European continent represents a breeding area for 13 owl species (Mikkola, 1983). Their diet has been well documented for most species, especially in central and northern parts of the continent (e.g., Uttendörfer, 1952;Mikkola, 1983;Birrer, 2009). These diet studies were performed in various habitat types during different seasons and across dissimilar time spans. However, despite such a large number of studies, feeding habits of breeding owl species are still unknown for many vast regions (e.g., mountain ranges). One species that is relatively poorly investigated in such areas, particularly in southeastern and eastern Europe, is Tengmalm's owl Aegolius funereus, a small forest-dwelling predator, which occurs in the taiga forest belt across Eurasia and North America (Mikkola, 1983;König and Weick, 2008). In the Balkan Peninsula, the Tengmalm's owl population is regarded as a postglacial relict population (Simeonov et al., 1990). In Serbia, this rare nocturnal predator inhabits high mountain areas (>1000 m) covered with mixed and coniferous forests in the western and southwestern parts of the country (Rajković et al., 2010). Across the European continent, this owl species has been in the focus of numerous feeding ecology studies (e.g.

Diet of boreal owl (Aegolius funereus) in lowlands of north-eastern Poland

“…This fact corresponds to the results of studies from the Białowieża Primal Forest as well as a few Finnish, Swedish and recent Serbian studies (e.g. Sulkava & Sulkava 1971, Rajković 2018. However, in many other sites across Europe the field vole (Microtus agrestis) was the main prey, while in this study it was the second most important species.…”