Coliidae
Coliiformes - Coliidae - Mousebirds
© Phil Clayton
Wild diet: Many feed on fruit, also take other plant material; leaves, shoots, buds, flowers & nectar. Lycium, Solanum, Ficus, Rhus, Phoenix, Balanites, Tamarindus & Diospyros are fed on regularly. Will feed on plants which are toxic to other animals, syringe (Melia azderach), the pepper tree (Schinus molle), bugweed (Solanum auriculatum) & Acokanthera spectabilis.
Feeding strategy: Have a short, wide gut, lacking caeca, food transit time is very rapid. Faeces are voided between 6 & 18 minutes after ingestion of fruit, transit time for leaves is much slower & may explain why leaves are chosen as the days final meal.
Handbook Of The Birds Of The World. Vol 6. Mousebirds to Hornbills, Lynx Edicions, Barcelona
Anatomical and Nutritional Adaptations of the Speckled Mousebird >
There are no diets in use yet for the General Mousebird information.
Please keep us up-to-date and contact us with your own updates or new diets used for the General Mousebird information.
Enter a search term below to find information from within the Avian Nutrition Resource website.