INTRODUCTION 
This review surveys species of amphibians and reptiles 
that are reported prey of birds in southwestern Europe. These 
ectothermic animals are important in Mediterranean and 
temperate ecosystems, because they are the prey for many 
specialist birds (eg, the short-toed eagle, Circaetus 
gallicus, a snake eater). However, European herpetologists 
know the identity of few amphibian and reptilian predators. 
In the recently published "Handbuch der Reptilien und 
Amphibien Europas", references to predation are scarce and 
even ignored. However, the ornithological literature contains 
numerous papers on bird diets, and amphibians and reptiles 
are frequently cited as bird preys. 
The Cramp’s "Handbook of Birds of the Western Paleartic" 
was the first book examined; however, most of the predation 
records were obtained from the main European ornithological 
journals from Southwestern Europe. Including the Iberian 
Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), France, Belgium, The 
Netherlands, and the British Isles -approximately between 
10°W and 10°E longitude. 
References are listed and numbered alphabetically and 
Can be accessed through either predator or prey. Species are 
listed systematically. 
All scientific names have been updated. Some report 
provide only general identifications i.e., frog, toad, 
lizard or snake. In such cases, we have tried to identify 
the prey precisely as possible. We had problems with the 
"green frog" group, which includes Rana ridibunda, R. perezi, 
R. lessonae, and R. esculenta. Since these species are 
taxonomically complex, we cited them here as green frogs. 
The same identification problems occurred with the genera 
Discoglossus, Hyla, and Podarcis. 
The number of references is not a good index for 
predation rate, it only means that one species is more 
frequently cited. Although some preys occur only occasionally 
in bird diet, other species apparently experience heavy 
predation. This aspect is often ignored in ecological 
studies. 
Please remembered that this survey was limited to 
regional journals and books and complete only for 1950 
through 1988 for these. The journals are: Belgium (Le 
Gerfaut), France (Acta Biologica Montana, Alauda, Aves, Le 
Biévre, Le Cormoran, L’Oiseau et la Revue Francaise 
