I recently work on the diet analyses for woodland migrants. I found couple of spring-like and brown or pinkish structures from bird fecal samples. It feels like rock or iron when I try to break it. Does anybody know what they are? Thanks in advance!
They resemble some sort of pupae a little like #3. Cant really see the ends in the photo. Were you able to break them?
http://ipm.ncsu.edu/AG369/keys.html
They remind some kind of worms, may be remains of some intestinal parasite skin ?
For me, they do not look as internal parasites... maybe they are worm's remains that they eat. It would be great to zoom-in the proximal area, to see if there are remains of rostral structures
Not at all sure - but (a hopefully educated guess) they might perhaps represent a chitinous, therefore indigestible, internal part of an insect - such as the spiracles/tracheoles of a prey species.
Another thing, which can be confusing, to look out for are earthworm chaetae, which show up best via transmitted light.. They are often the only physical remains of Lumbricidae in bird faeces to help confirm them in a diet.
Anyone speculating on the nature of these should look at them in a more magnified view. They are definitely interesting structures.
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