Diet composition in the Tengmalm's Owl Aegolius funereus: a comparison of camera surveillance and pellet analysis.

The article assesses the diet composition of Tengmalm's Owls during the breeding season by means of a combination of pellet analysis and camera recordings. Data suggests that the diet of the owls is comprised of voles, mice and shrews, and that their proportion in the diet reflected their local abundances in the field. It speculates that the underestimation of voles may have been a result of their decapitation before delivery to the nest. It notes that the effectiveness of determining prey species to higher taxa was higher for camera monitoring than pellet analyses. It recommends the use of both methods for a more accurate assessment of diet composition of breeding raptors and owls.