What Do Pine Martens Eat? European Pine Marten Diet

Pine Marten sitting on the edge of a rural road

Watch pine martens for long enough and one thing becomes obvious: they are remarkably flexible about food.

I’ve watched them climb into fruit trees to pick cherries and plums directly from the branches. I’ve found their scats packed with fruit stones and seeds. At other times of year, the evidence points towards a much more carnivorous diet. That flexibility is important because there isn't really a single answer to the question, what do pine martens eat?

Pine martens (Martes martes) are opportunistic omnivores. Across Europe their diet includes small mammals, birds, eggs, insects and other invertebrates, carrion, and a surprisingly wide range of fruits and berries. What matters most changes with season, habitat and, above all, what is locally abundant.

A large review of European studies found small mammals to be the most important food category overall, but individual studies show enormous variation. In some places and at some times of year, fruit can become one of the most important foods in the diet. My own observations in this article come from central France, where I have been able to watch pine martens feeding regularly around our property. I use those observations alongside published research from Britain, Ireland and elsewhere in Europe.

The result is a much more interesting animal than the simple label of woodland predator suggests.

Pine Marten Diet at a Glance

Across their European range, pine martens may eat:

small mammals, including voles, mice and shrews
birds and eggs
insects and other invertebrates
fruit and berries
carrion
larger prey opportunistically, including squirrels and young lagomorph

The proportions can vary dramatically.

A Europe-wide review of dozens of diet studies found small mammals made up the largest prey category overall. But even within that dataset, their contribution varied enormously between studies. Plant material, predominantly berries and other fruit, was also important, as were birds and invertebrates.

That variability is probably the most useful thing to remember. Rather than thinking of a pine marten as an animal with a fixed menu, think of it as a highly adaptable forager continually exploiting the best opportunities available in its surroundings.

Small Mammals: An Important Part of the Diet

Small mammals are important pine marten prey across much of Europe. Voles, mice and shrews all occur in diet studies, although their importance varies between habitats and regions. A six-year Swedish study found small mammals, particularly voles, formed a relatively stable component of the diet throughout the year.

But even here I would be wary of saying that pine martens “mainly eat voles”. That is sometimes true. It isn't universally true.

Research in Northern Ireland, for example, found a much more mixed picture. Wood mice were important, but so were birds and fruit. Almost two-thirds of the estimated dietary biomass there came from just three resources: rowan berries, songbirds and wood mice.

This tells us something important about pine marten ecology. They don't simply search for a preferred prey species regardless of circumstances. Their diet responds to the landscape around them. When rodents are abundant, they provide valuable prey. When another food becomes plentiful and easy to obtain, martens can switch remarkably quickly.

Do Pine Martens Eat Birds and Eggs?

Yes. Birds are a regular component of pine marten diet, although again their importance varies.

The Northern Irish study found birds were particularly important in spring and summer, when young birds and fledglings are available. Passerines dominated the identifiable bird remains, although several other bird groups occurred. Eggs were recorded too, but were relatively uncommon in that particular study.

A pine marten is an agile climber, so nests that would be inaccessible to many terrestrial predators are potentially within reach. That does not mean every collection of feathers in pine marten habitat should be attributed to a marten. Foxes, mustelids, raptors and other predators can leave superficially similar remains.

As with any kill or feeding site, the feathers are only part of the evidence (you can read my in depth guide to understanding kill sites here).

Small bird bones shown under a microscope — *My own studies have found a large number of small bird and rodent bones in Pine Marten scat, even in Summer months.*

Fruit Is Far More Important Than You Might Expect

This is the part of pine marten diet I have been able to observe most directly. At our place in central France, seasonal fruit can completely change where the martens spend their time.

In late spring I've watched pine martens climbing high into a cherry tree and taking fruit directly from the branches. On one occasion a red squirrel was feeding in the same tree, less than three metres away, apparently tolerated while both animals exploited the same temporary abundance of food. Later in the summer, the focus shifts. Our plum trees become extraordinarily attractive.

A pine marten high in the branches of a cherry tree feeding on fruit — *In areas where Pine Marten’s are undisturbed they regularly feed on fruit in daylight, like this one I watched in mature cherry tree, one mid-morning in May.*

I've recorded pine martens feeding on windfallen plums beneath the trees and climbing into the canopy to pick fruit themselves. On some nights several martens have visited the same small area. What at first may seem like a strange observation is in fact relatively common.

Fruit appears repeatedly in European diet studies. Rowan, blackberry, bilberry, hawthorn and cherry have all been identified in Northern Irish pine marten scats, with fruit becoming particularly important in autumn. Other studies have found even stronger reliance on fruit. Research in Killarney National Park found fruit was the most frequently consumed food category in most seasons, while studies farther south in Europe have also recorded substantial fruit consumption.

The important ecological point isn't that pine martens “love fruit”. It is that a temporarily abundant food source can concentrate their activity in a very small part of the landscape.

For someone trying to find or photograph pine martens, that is enormously useful.

*One of our plum trees in our garden in central France becomes a Pine Marten hotspot every July when the fruit ripens.*

“Pip” a three year old female that has been revisiting our plum tree her entire life, and uses the culvert under our lane to access the fallen fruit beneath the tree without exposing herself to too much open ground.

How Pine Marten Diet Changes Through the Year

It is tempting to turn pine marten diet into a neat four-season menu. Nature isn't quite that tidy.

Food availability varies with latitude, weather, habitat and year, so a marten in Sweden will not encounter the same seasonal opportunities as one in France or Ireland. There are, however, some broad patterns:

Spring

Small mammals can remain important, while birds become increasingly available as nesting begins. Carrion may also contribute to the diet. For females, spring and early summer also coincide with the energetic demands associated with raising kits.

Summer

The range of available foods expands considerably. Birds and young animals may be vulnerable, insects and other invertebrates become plentiful, and the first important fruit crops begin appearing.

At my French site, cherries provide one of the first conspicuous seasonal concentrations of pine marten activity.

Autumn

This is when fruit can become particularly important.

Berries and orchard fruit may provide large amounts of food concentrated in predictable locations. Northern Irish research found fruit was the most frequently occurring food category in autumn. This is also why late summer and autumn can be such productive times for looking for pine marten signs around fruiting trees and shrubs.

Winter

As many fruits and invertebrates disappear, animal prey becomes increasingly important, although some fruits can remain available surprisingly late.

The exact balance again depends heavily on location. Even Swedish research found berries and insects remained part of the winter diet, illustrating why simple seasonal rules should be treated cautiously.

Pine Marten scat with Ivy seeds next to a measuring ruler. — *Seeds and fruit remains in pine marten scat can provide useful evidence of seasonal diet. This scat was recorded at my study site in France.*

Pine Marten Scat Can Tell You What They Have Been Eating

One advantage of studying diet is that you don't necessarily need to see the meal being eaten. Scat can preserve a surprising amount of evidence.

Seeds and fruit stones can sometimes be obvious. Hair, feathers and fragments of invertebrate exoskeleton may also survive digestion, although identifying prey accurately from scat becomes much more difficult once you move beyond conspicuous remains.

There is another trap here.

Finding blackberry seeds in a scat proves that fruit was eaten. It doesn't tell you that blackberries dominated the animal's diet that week. Likewise, counting how frequently a food appears in scats isn't necessarily the same thing as measuring how much energy the animal obtained from it. This is one reason published diet studies can produce somewhat different pictures depending on their methods.

For field naturalists, the sensible approach is simpler: treat scat contents as one line of evidence, then combine them with what is seasonally available, feeding signs, direct observations and camera footage.

It’s not only food type that can influence a scats appearance. Age of scat and weather conditions can have a great impact on scat colour and form. As you can see in this example that I photographed over several days, there are very few seeds or pips, and in fact a large part of the contents was fur (likely vole) and beetle wing casings.

Do Pine Martens Eat Red and Grey Squirrels?

They can eat squirrels, but this needs more nuance than it often receives online. Pine martens are capable of killing squirrels and squirrel remains occur in dietary studies. But the ecological relationship between martens and squirrels is much more interesting than simply “pine martens eat squirrels”.

Research in Britain and Ireland has found that recovering pine marten populations can be associated with declines in invasive grey squirrels, while native red squirrels appear better able to persist alongside martens. That does not mean every pine marten spends its nights actively hunting squirrels, nor that squirrels are necessarily a major component of the diet everywhere.

The effect appears to involve predator-prey relationships operating across populations and landscapes, rather than squirrels universally being a staple food……and occasionally the animals behave in ways that don't fit our expectations at all. The red squirrel I watched feeding in the same cherry tree as a pine marten is a good example. At that moment both animals appeared considerably more interested in cherries than in each other.

Do Pine Martens Cache Food?

Yes. But this is another area where I would be cautious about making broad claims.

Food caching has been documented in European pine martens. One particularly interesting study using den boxes in Scotland and Northern Ireland recorded caches containing birds, small mammals and other prey. Some were substantial, demonstrating that martens can store surplus food rather than consuming everything immediately. What is much less clear is how important caching is across different habitats, seasons and food types.

My own observations have made me particularly interested in this question.

At our French site I've repeatedly watched pine martens pick up plums and carry them away from the tree. Some disappear towards cover and through a culvert used by the animals. That demonstrates food transport. It does not, by itself, demonstrate caching.

The fruit could be eaten somewhere safer, carried to another individual or stored for later. Without subsequently locating the fruit or recording the animal returning to retrieve it, I cannot reliably distinguish those possibilities. That distinction matters. It is very easy to observe an interesting behaviour and then unconsciously turn the explanation we favour into a fact.

So for now I record it as exactly what I can demonstrate: pine martens at this site sometimes carry fruit away from a concentrated food source. Whether some of those plums are subsequently cached remains an open question.

A pine marten collecting ripe plums and carrying them away from one of our plum trees. This shows food transport clearly, although it does not by itself prove that the fruit was being cached.

Using Food to Find Pine Martens

For me, this is where understanding pine marten diet becomes practically useful. Rather than wandering through suitable woodland hoping to encounter one, look for temporary concentrations of food.

Depending on where you are and the time of year, that might mean:

Fruiting cherries or plums
Heavy blackberry crops
Rowan berries
Bilberries
Productive woodland edges or places where prey is particularly abundant.

Then look for evidence that martens are actually using the resource. Animal trails and pathways leading to and from a concentrated food source can also help reveal how wildlife is moving through the surrounding landscape.

Scat is particularly useful. So are tracks, and feeding remains. A single piece of evidence tells you relatively little; repeated signs around the same food source are much more interesting. Getting your suspicions on film is a great way of confirming who exactly is visiting and when. If your new to using trail cameras, and want to know how to get the best from them there’s a very useful guide on our website: Mastering the Use of Trail Cameras for Wildlife Watching and Photography

I have found this trail cameras especially useful with fruit trees because the resource is both concentrated and temporary. A tree may be largely irrelevant to a pine marten for most of the year and then, for a few weeks, become one of the most productive places on the property to watch.

That changes the way I think about finding wildlife. Habitat tells you where an animal could be. Food can sometimes tell you where an animal has a reason to be right now. A trail camera will quickly tell you when a resource is being used and when it isn’t.

A pine marten foraging beneath a plum tree during the brief period when fallen plums make the area especially productive.

What Pine Marten Diet Tells Us About the Animal

The most useful lesson from all of this isn't a list of foods. It is adaptability.

Across Europe, pine martens live in very different landscapes and encounter very different prey and fruiting seasons. The relative importance of rodents, birds, invertebrates and fruit changes accordingly. That flexibility probably helps explain why apparently contradictory diet studies can all be correct.

A pine marten in a Swedish forest, one living in Ireland and the animals visiting my plum trees in central France are the same species. They are simply responding to different opportunities.

For a naturalist, that suggests a better question than:

“What do pine martens eat?”

Ask:

“What is abundant here, now, that a pine marten could exploit?”

That question takes you out of the field guide and back into the landscape…….and quite often, that is where you find the animal.

Pine Marten Diet: Frequently Asked Questions

What do pine martens mainly eat?

Across Europe, small mammals are an important component of pine marten diet, but there is no single food that dominates everywhere. Birds, fruit, insects, carrion and other foods can become important depending on season, habitat and availability.

Do pine martens eat fruit?

Yes. Fruit can form a substantial part of the diet, particularly when berries or orchard fruits become seasonally abundant. Rowan, blackberry, bilberry, cherry and other fruits have all been recorded in dietary studies.

Do pine martens eat squirrels?

Yes, pine martens can prey on squirrels, but squirrels should not automatically be regarded as their principal prey. Their importance varies geographically and pine martens exploit many other foods.

Do pine martens eat birds?

Yes. Birds and occasionally eggs form part of their diet. Some studies show bird consumption increasing during spring and summer.

Do pine martens store food?

Pine martens have been documented caching prey, including birds and small mammals. However, the frequency and importance of caching probably vary considerably. Carrying food away from a feeding site should not automatically be interpreted as caching.

What is the best time of year to look for pine marten feeding signs?

There isn't one universal season. Instead, look for locally abundant food. Late summer and autumn can be particularly productive around fruiting trees and berry crops, while animal prey may become relatively more important at other times of year.