PRELIMINARY DATA ON THE FOOD STRUCTURE OF THE SAND MARTIN NESTLINGS (RIPARIA RIPARIA L. 1758) (AVES: HIRUNDINIDAE) IN SOUTHERN ROMANIA GABRIEL CHIªAMERA, TRAIAN MANOLE Abstract. The paper presents some preliminary data on the food structure of the Sand Martin nestlings (Riparia riparia L., 1758) during the three months of the breeding season: May, June and July. Our researches were made in two colonies from the Argeº River, 3 km downstream the dam from Mihãileºti. We used the method of the analysis of the faeces eliminated by the nestlings. We collected 66 faeces at the end of May, 69 faeces in June, and 14 faeces in July. In all 159 studied samples we identified 2,116 preys which belong to two classes, 7 orders and 16 families of arthropods. Most of the preys were represented by coleopterans (60.39%), hymenopterans (29.02%), heteropterans (4.01%), dipterans (2.89%) and other groups (3.68%). Résumé. Le travail présente quelques données préliminaires sur la structure de la nourriture de l’hirondelle de rivage (Riparia riparia L., 1758) pendant les trois mois de la saison de reproduction: mai, juin et juillet. Notre recherche a été faits dans deux colonies de la rivière Argeº, 3 kilomètres aval du barrage de Mihãileºti. Nous avons employé la méthode d’analyse des excréments. Nous avons collecté 66 excréments à fin du mai, 69 excréments en juin et 14 excréments en juillet. Dans tous les 159 échantillons étudiés nous avons identifié 2.116 proies qui appartiennent à deux classes, 7 ordres et 16 familles des arthropodes. La plupart des proies ont été représentés par des coléoptères (60,39%), hyménoptères (29,02%), hétéroptères (4,01%), diptéres (2,89%) et d’autres groupes (3,68%). Key words: Sand Martin, Riparia riparia, nestlings diet. In Romania, the studies on the food of the insectivorous birds are few in number. The first references on the food of the insectivorous birds were published by Dombrowski (1912) and Linþia (1946). But most of the papers appeared during the period 1958 - 1971. Such kind of studies were made by Korodi Gal (1958) for Phoenicurus phoenicurus, Korodi Gal (1965) for Sylvia atricapilla; Theiss & Ieniºtea (1967), who followed the neck ring method in order to identified the composition of the nestlings food of Passer domesticus and Passer montanus; Iordache (1971), analysed the stomach content of the nestlings of the same species; Munteanu (1969), used also the neck ring method in analisying the food of Phoenicurus ochruros nestlings; Papadopol (1969), published a paper in which he referred to the main investigation methods on the bird food. The reason which lies at the bottom of this paper was that there are very few papers dealing with the food of Hirundinidae in the specialized literature. Frequently it is asserted only that they are insectivorous, without details on the insect groups included in the diet of these birds and their share. In the foreign literature, papers on the Hirundinidae food were published by: Kozena (1975), for Delichon urbica, Kozena (1979, 1980, 1983), for Hirundo rustica, Prodon (1982), for Hirundo daurica rufula, Turner (1984), for Phaeoprogne tapera, Kopij (2000), for Hirundo rustica, H. albogularis, H. semirufa, H. cucullata, English translation by Mihaela Barcan Achim. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle «Grigore Antipa» Vol. XLVIII pp. 383–394 © 30 Dec. 2005