Food of the Nestling Broad-billed Roller Eurystomus orientalis

Abstract

1) Food of the nestling Broad-billed Rollers Eurystomus orientalis was studied during the breeding seasons at Sakaemura, Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, in 1985 and 1986.
2) Ninety-six samples of food items were collected by the collar method. Almost all of them (99.0%) were insects.
3) Coleoptera were the most important insects (45.3%) and the second were Hemiptera (32.6%).
4) There were closely related diurnal changes between the food items and the activity of insects.
5) It is discussed that the behaviour using shells, porcelain, etc., as "millstones" for grinding hard chitinous bodies of insects is closely related to their feeding habits.