What Are Bird Pellets & Why Are They Important Nests? | Live | Discover Wildlife |Robert E Fuller

This broadcast was recorded live and includes a live dissection of a bird pellet plus Q&As

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WHAT ARE PELLETS?
Pellets are balls of matted fur, bones and skulls regurgitated by birds. Essentially they contain anything the bird cannot digest. Birds will bring up a pellet most days, sometimes twice a day.
MANY BIRD SPECIES THROW PELLETS
A great number of bird species throw pellets, and depending on what they have eaten they will sometimes throw more than one a day. It is a necessary process and birds cannot eat whilst they are bringing up a pellet.
WHAT IS IN A PELLET
What's inside a pellet depends on what the bird has eaten that day. Just one barn owl pellet can contain up to four vole skulls and three common shrew skulls, their fur and bones. I once found grass inside a short eared owl pellet - evidence that the owl had swallowed its prey whole - something they often do to stop kestrels from snatching it off them!
DISECCETING BIRD PELLETS
It is interesting to dissect pellets to see what they've eaten. Kingfisher pellets are very fine and loose. They are made up of fish scales and fine fish bones. I recommend soaking pellets in water to help them come apart. I've found a weasel skull in barn owl pellet which was amazing, and I've also come across leveret bones and frog skulls too. Keep watching to see how little owl pellets shimmer because of the beetles they eat.
HOW BIG IS A PELLET
Pellets can vary in size, depending on the bird coughing it up, and most species seem to be able to manage quite big ones. Watch as a young kestrel brings up what seems like a very big pellet for its size. I've also got the, very sharp, bones of a gull that was thrown up by a sea eagle and even remains of a goat from an eagle pellet.
DO PELLETS SMELL?
Unlike poo, pellets have not been digested and so they don't have a smell and don't carry disease. They can smell a little 'fusty' but that's all.
WHY ARE PELLETS IMPORTANT IN SOME BIRD NESTS
Many birds break up their pellets to line the floor of their nests with. Owls do this, and kingfishers too. Kingfisher nests have nowhere for faeces to go and so their pellets will absorb their poo and keep the nest clean for the chicks. In fact a kingfisher will not lay her eggs until she has a soft layer of pellets to lay on. Watch to see how deftly she shreds hers and her chick's pellets.
PELLET ECO-SYSTEMS
The pellets that fall on the floor of a nest also support other life forms. For instance as the detritus of owl pellets builds up in an owl nest it will attract insects like flies and spiders which smaller birds then eat.
CLOTHES MOTHS
Of particular interest is the clothes moth, which lays its eggs inside vole fur. The larvae then pupates inside the pellet or in the owl nest and these pupae sustain other birds over the winter. Watch as a tree creeper eeks one out from a crevice in the side of one of my owl boxes.
If you are interested in this symbiotic process you can read more about it in my blog post here: https://www.robertefuller.com/diary/how-an-elm-tree-that-died-decades-ago-is-still-giving-life-today/

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About Me: I am a British wildlife artist based in Thixendale, North Yorkshire, UK. I build ideal habitats to encourage wildlife into my garden and use nest cams to study their behaviour. These studies inform my paintings. I share the best of my video research on this channel for free. If you would like to support my work please consider a small donation here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s...
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