<![CDATA[Abstract. Lozada-Villanueva MB, Villegas-Paredes LN, Luque-Fernández CR. 2026. Summer diet composition and burrow-centered activity of Athene cunicularia in a Peruvian coastal wetland. Biodiversitas 27 (9): d270901. https://doi.org/10.13057/biodiv/d270901. This study assessed summer diet composition and burrow-centered activity of Athene cunicularia in a coastal wetland of southern Peru. A total of 502 pellets were collected from three active burrows between December 2022 and March 2023. Diet composition was quantified using Relative Numerical Frequency (RNF), representing the numerical contribution of each prey category, and frequency of occurrence in pellets (FAE), representing its recurrence among pellets. Trophic diversity, niche overlap, and multivariate diet composition were explored among burrow-month units, whereas camera-trap and direct-observation records were used descriptively to characterize burrow-centered activity. These complementary approaches allowed dietary patterns and activity observations to be evaluated within the same local ecological and seasonal context. This study identified 6031 prey items, of which 95.94% were invertebrates. Orthoptera and Coleoptera numerically dominated the diet and were recurrent across burrows and months. Under the available sampling design, analyses did not detect statistically supported differences in trophic diversity among burrows or months, while trophic overlap values ranged from 0.47 to 0.88. Feeding records occurred mainly during nocturnal and crepuscular periods, whereas vigilance, preening, and burrow maintenance were more frequently documented during daytime. These findings provide a local summer baseline consistent with the trophic flexibility of A. cunicularia and document its burrow-centered activity in a heterogeneous coastal wetland, providing useful ecological information for future comparative studies of this species in similar coastal environments.]]>
