Survey of the Intestinal Bacterial Compositions of Three Sympatric Passeriformes Species

Aims: The gut microbiota of avian species, especially wild birds, is studied less than that mammals. Moreover, due to ethical concerns, a vast majority studies have been limited their feces. In this study, we investigated the microbial composition in upper intestinal tract sympatric, heterospecific bird species.
 Study Design: We obtained samples from three species belonging same Order Passeriformes: Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum), American Robin (Turdus migratorius) and Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis). were birds soon after they died physical injury. Microbial diversity was analyzed via high-throughput sequencing 16S rRNA gene fragments.
 Place Duration Study: Indiana University Kokomo campus, Indiana. United States, between October 2019 December 2020.
 Methodology: Illumina Miseq V3-V4 region employed determine composition. α β determined by Shannon’s index principal coordinate analysis, respectively. Pair-wise comparison Bray-Curtis dissimilarity different collection dates years analyzed.
 Results: proteobacterial sequences predominant all samples. However, at level bacterial class revealed significant intraspecies variation both diversity. Additionally, some exhibited higher interspecies similarity similarity, despite these not sharing foraging guilds.
 Conclusion: Our study high variability compositions within part digestive closely related Passeriform natural environment.