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A pellet, in ornithology, is the mass of undigested parts of a bird's food that some bird species occasionally regurgitate. The contents of a bird's pellet depend on its diet, but can include the exoskeletons of insects, indigestible plant matter, bones, fur, feathers, bills, claws, and teeth. In falconry, the pellet is called a casting.
Commercial bird food is widely available for feeding wild and domesticated birds, in the forms of both seed combinations and pellets. [9] [10]When feeding wild birds, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) [11] suggests that it be done year-round, with different mixes of nutrients being offered each season.
In addition, many species of birds regurgitate pellets. [87] It is a common but not universal feature of altricial passerine nestlings (born helpless, under constant parental care) that instead of excreting directly into the nest, they produce a fecal sac. This is a mucus-covered pouch that allows parents to either dispose of the waste outside ...
Some bird species also occasionally regurgitate pellets of indigestible matter such as bones and feathers. [3] It is in most animals a normal and voluntary process unlike the complex vomiting reflex in response to toxins.
Pellets consist of a mash that has been pelletized; that is, compressed and molded into pellets in a pellet mill. Unlike mash, where the ingredients can separate in shipment and the poultry can pick and choose among the ingredients (many times picking out just the corn and leaving the rest), the ingredients in a single pellet stay together, and ...
The barn swallow is a bird of open country that normally nests in man-made structures and consequently has spread with human expansion. It builds a cup nest from mud pellets in barns or similar structures and feeds on insects caught in flight. [5]