Wire Ingestion by a Red-billed Tropicbird <i>Phaethon aethereus</i> Chick on San Pedro Mártir Island, Mexico
We report the ingestion of wire by a Red-billed Tropicbird Phaethon aethereus chick at San Pedro Mártir Island, Gulf of California, Mexico. A scat sample collected from a four- to five-week-old chick contained a copper wire ~5.0 mm in length. Biologging revealed the previous foraging trips by one of the parents, and we ascertained the diet of birds in this colony through a molecular approach. From these data, we suggest why this individual was fed wire.
Authors
- Petra Quillfeldt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4450-8688)
- Vladislav Marcuk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8455-4398)
- Alberto Piña‐Ortiz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6871-9041)
- José Alfredo Castillo‐Guerrero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5922-9342)
- Salvador Gómez-Hernández
Institutions
- Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Marine ornithology
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.53.1.1615
- Primary Topic
- Avian ecology and behavior
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Sonoran Joint Venture
- Universidad de Guadalajara
- Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología
- Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas