Birds eat their weight in insects several times a day. True, birds also feed on fruits and seeds, but they prefer insects and seek them out first.
The following insect consumption facts serve to point out the importance of birds in insect control:
- A chickadee eats from two hundred to five hundred insects a day.
- A brown thrasher can eat over six hundred insects a day.
- A house wren feeds five hundred spiders and caterpillars to its young in a day.
Other helpful birds are bluebirds, bobolinks, meadowlarks, doves, field sparrows, purple martins, swallows, kingbirds, black phoebes, titmice, baltimore orioles and woodpeckers.
Attract Birds With Food And Shelter
Adequate food, housing, and water will bring birds into your yard. In the winter when insects are not readily available, bird feeders with appropriate purchased food will help to keep birds in the area. Landscaping with particular shrubs and trees provides birds with a place for nesting, insects to eat, and protection from their natural enemies. Bird houses provide nesting places for some birds. Water for bathing is important to birds. Bird baths should be out of the reach of cats and out in the open so the birds can see possible enemies.
|Shrubs, Vines, And Trees That Attract Birds|
|Flowering crab||Red cedar|