Diet and Foraging

Spotted Nothura consumes both plant and animal material, although plant material makes up most of the diet. Silva and Sander (1981), for example, examined the crops of 178 nothura shot by hunters. Of these, 46% contained only plants, 49% contained a mix of plant and animal material, and only 4.% contained only animal material. Of the plant material identified by Silva and Sander (1981), seeds made up the majority of the plant material (83%). Grasses were the most frequent type of plant (38%), followed by beans (27%); a few fruits also were included in the diet. Other plants consumed include species of  Solanaceae, Oxalidaceae, and Malvaceae (Silva and Sander 1981). Animals in the diet include ants (Formicidae), beetles (Coleoptera), bugs (Hemiptera), Orthoptera, Lepidoptera, spiders (Araneae), millipedes (Diplopoda), molluscs, myriapods and crustaceans (Silva and Sander (1981).