The stoat usually hunts on large rodents and species in the lagomorph. They will attack animal far larger than itself. In Russia, its prey includes rodents and lagomorphs such as European water voles, common hamsters, pikas. It overpowers them in their burrows. It also eats small birds, fish, and shrews and, more rarely, amphibians, lizards, and insects. In Great Britain, European rabbits are an important source of food. Stoats that live in Great Britain rarely kill shrews, rats, squirrels and water voles, though rats may be an important source of food locally. In Ireland, shrews and rats are frequently eaten. In North America, where the ecological niche for rat and rabbit sized prey is taken by the larger long-tailed weasel, the stoat hunts mice, voles, shrews, and young cottontail. In New Zealand, the stoat mostly feeds on birds, including the rare kiwi, kaka, mohua, yellow-crowned parakeet, and New Zealand dotterel.