FEEDING OF THE LITTLE OWL DURING NESTING SEASON IN THE DANUBE DELTA (ROMANIA)

3 "Grigore Antipa" National Museum of Natural History, Kiseleff Blvd., No.1, 011341 Bucharest, Romania Abstract. The feeding of Little Owl was studied based on 103 pellets collected near Letea village, in the Danube Delta. Pellets were collected near the nest, each month from April until June 2009 and in the owl's diet, several species of insects, mammals and birds were identified. The highest percentage is represented by insects, with species belonging to orders Coleoptera (71.92%), Orthoptera (15.45%) and Dermaptera (5.31%). Among the Coleoptera, the most frequent group is represented by species of family Carabidae - 22.34% and 20.16% other unidentified species. Among the Orthoptera, Gryllotalpa sp. is the most abundant (15.21%). Regarding the Mammals, rodents represent their favorite prey. Over 65% of the micro mammals identified as prey belong to Micromys minutus (42%) and Microtus arvalis (26%) species. In the pellets, the remains of one specimen of Pipistrellus sp. have also been identified. Birds hold a small percentage of Little Owl's diet, only two species being identified: Motacilla alba and Passer montanus.