A predator

The Bonelli´s Eagle is one of the largest predators of the Mediterranean ecosystem.

Any predator has in principle a wide range of preys to feed on, but in practice it restricts remarkably the kind of preys captured according to its activity, its size and the environment where they live, and only a limited kind of preys are included in  its diet.

Predators usually capture more frequently those preys that, with a lesser effort, provide them with a greatest quantity of nourishment, those called “optimal preys”.

To know about the diet of the birds of prey is very important the study of the pellets, the small balls they expel trough the beak; these contain indigestible parts of eaten animals, such as feathers, hairs or bones.