Fiji Woodswallow - Diet

Diet

The Fiji Woodswallow feeds on insects, with moths, butterflies, dragonflies, and grasshoppers being the main prey taken. Most of the prey is obtained by hawking, with birds sitting on prominent perches and sallying after flying insect prey. Prey is usually taken out in the open away from obstacles but is occasionally taken from near the ground. Alternatively the woodswallow may make sweeps over flowering plants and snap at insects. It seldom lands to catch prey. Smaller items of prey are swallowed whole, whereas larger items are taken to a perch and dismembered, with the insect held on the perch with a foot and pecked apart. The wings of some species, such as dragonflies, are often stripped off before swallowing.

Family groups will feed each other during the breeding season, and injured birds are fed while they recover.

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