Order
Passeriformes
Family
Mimidae
Genus
Margarops
 
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Version 1.0

This is a historic version of this account.  Current version

SPECIES

Pearly-eyed Thrasher Margarops fuscatus

Wayne J. Arendt
Version: 1.0 — Published November 17, 2017

Diet and Foraging

Diet

In the Luquillo Experimental Forest (El Yunque National Forest) in northeast Puerto Rico, adult Pearly-eyed Thrasher feeds on the fruits of 19 species of plants (Wetmore 1916, Waide 1996), but fruits of the sierra palm are a prime component, making up 22% of the diet (Snyder et al. 1987, Arendt 2000, 2006b: Chapter 6, page 169, Wunderle and Arendt 2011).

Fruit also is important in the diet of nestling thrashers. Within the palo colorado forest type in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, and specifically in the Icacos Valley on the forest’s southern slope, over a 13-yr period (1979–1991) during periodic nest monitoring, thrashers were recorded bringing 1,486 food items to nestlings (W. J. Arendt, unpublished data). Plant food (96% of which was fruit) constituted 63% (n = 941 feedings) and animal prey 37% (n = 545 feedings). Vegetable matter consisted of 11 recognizable plant species. Four fruits constituted 97% of the non-animal food items: sierra palm, Prestoea acuminate var. montana [Graham] Nicholson (81%), Cecropia [peltata L.] schreberiana Miq. (13%) and tabonuco, Dacryodes excelsa Vahl. (3%). In descending abundance, Marcgravia sp., Rubus rosifolius (Raspberry), Clusia sp., Musa sp., and Miconia sp. made up 1% or less of the total. Invertebrates made up 80% of the animal prey, of which 70% were arthropods, 66% insects and 4% non-insect, most of which were: arachnids (in descending abundance): (< 1% each) whip scorpions, centipedes (myriapods), spiders, and scorpions. Only 20% of the animal prey included vertebrates, ca 10% each of Eleutherodactylus sp. frogs and anoline lizards (Anolis spp.), all of which were fed to older nestlings.

For additional information on the pearly-eye’s fruit and seed preferences in relation to other frugivorous species in moist subtropical secondary forest (one on lateritic and two on in karstic soils) and two shaded coffee plantations (secondary forest sites) in Puerto Rico, see Carlo et al. (2003).

Pearly-eyed Thrasher depredates adults and young of several species of birds, from Bananaquits (Coereba flaveola) and warblers to shore birds, as well as other vertebrates (Arendt 2006b: Chapter 8, pages 269–273).

Foraging Behavior

Recommended Citation

Arendt, W. J. (2017). Pearly-eyed Thrasher (Margarops fuscatus), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.peethr1.01