Dietary Niches and Their Consequences for Five Insectivorous Passerines in a Seasonal Boreal Setting
4 affiliations
- 1Ecology and Genetics Research Unit University of Oulu Oulu Finland
- 2Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences University of Eastern Finland Joensuu Finland
- 3Ecological Genetics Research Unit University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland
- 4École Normale Supérieure PSL University Paris France
Abstract
To understand the effects of climate change and other disturbances on ecosystems, methodologies capable of unravelling the complexity of biotic interactions are vital. Here, we present a dietary study on five passerines nesting in boreal forests: the crested tit Lophophanes cristatus , willow tit Poecile montanus , blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus , great tit Parus major , and pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca . We used metabarcoding to describe their arthropod prey during the breeding season, and linked diets' properties with breeding success to understand birds' dependence on particular prey. The birds' diets contained hundreds of arthropod taxa, showing considerable richness and interannual variation. Most prey identities were resolved to species level. The most common prey were Lepidoptera, followed by Diptera, Coleoptera and Araneae. Dietary overlap was low to middling, conformed to temporal overlap, and fluctuated across the three studied years. Higher consumption of lepidopterans and their larvae was strongly associated with higher breeding success in blue tits and, to a lesser extent, great tits. In contrast, crested tits, willow tits and pied flycatchers had a more constant breeding success without relying on specific prey. The results suggest that the more recently settled blue tits and great tits are less capable of optimally utilizing the comparatively resource‐poor boreal environments. The apparent good adaptation to local foraging conditions contrasts to declining population trends in the Red‐Listed crested tits and willow tits. Our study highlights the complexity of arthropod communities and insectivore food webs, and showcase how molecular methods can be used to study ecological interactions.
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BibTeX
@article{westerduin2026dietary,
title = {{Dietary Niches and Their Consequences for Five Insectivorous Passerines in a Seasonal Boreal Setting}},
author = {Coen Westerduin and Emma Vatka and Léo Lou Mael Chapuis and Oona Herzog and Seppo Rytkönen and Marko Mutanen and Markku Orell},
journal = {Molecular Ecology},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1111/mec.70620},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70620},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Dietary Niches and Their Consequences for Five Insectivorous Passerines in a Seasonal Boreal Setting
AU - Coen Westerduin
AU - Emma Vatka
AU - Léo Lou Mael Chapuis
AU - Oona Herzog
AU - Seppo Rytkönen
AU - Marko Mutanen
AU - Markku Orell
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/05
JO - Molecular Ecology
DO - 10.1111/mec.70620
UR - https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70620
AB - To understand the effects of climate change and other disturbances on ecosystems, methodologies capable of unravelling the complexity of biotic interactions are vital. Here, we present a dietary study on five passerines nesting in boreal forests: the crested tit Lophophanes cristatus , willow tit Poecile montanus , blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus , great tit Parus major , and pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca . We used metabarcoding to describe their arthropod prey during the breeding season, and linked diets' properties with breeding success to understand birds' dependence on particular prey. The birds' diets contained hundreds of arthropod taxa, showing considerable richness and interannual variation. Most prey identities were resolved to species level. The most common prey were Lepidoptera, followed by Diptera, Coleoptera and Araneae. Dietary overlap was low to middling, conformed to temporal overlap, and fluctuated across the three studied years. Higher consumption of lepidopterans and their larvae was strongly associated with higher breeding success in blue tits and, to a lesser extent, great tits. In contrast, crested tits, willow tits and pied flycatchers had a more constant breeding success without relying on specific prey. The results suggest that the more recently settled blue tits and great tits are less capable of optimally utilizing the comparatively resource‐poor boreal environments. The apparent good adaptation to local foraging conditions contrasts to declining population trends in the Red‐Listed crested tits and willow tits. Our study highlights the complexity of arthropod communities and insectivore food webs, and showcase how molecular methods can be used to study ecological interactions.
SN - 0962-1083
SN - 1365-294X
ER -