A rose-breasted grosbeak
There are many reasons to make your yard and garden more welcoming to birds. But here's one more: pest control.
Most backyard birds eat a combination of seeds, berries and insects. But in late spring and early summer, birds are busy filling the mouths of their hatchlings and baby birds like nothing better than freshly caught bugs.
For more information:
- Read How to Attract Bug-Eating Birds.
- Shop for birding products: birdhouses, birdfeeders and more.
Below is a list of common backyard birds and some of the insect pests they eat. Next time you see or hear a bird in your yard, you can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that they're on your side, helping you keep your garden healthy and looking good.
- Bluebirds: grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, larvae, moths
- Cardinals: beetles, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, stinkbugs, snails
- Chickadees: aphids, whitefly, scale, caterpillars, ants, earwigs
- Grosbeaks: larvae, caterpillars, beetles
- Nuthatches: tree and shrub insects such as borers, caterpillars, ants and earwigs
- Oriole: caterpillars, larvae, beetles, grasshoppers
- Sparrows: beetles, caterpillars, cutworms
- Swallows: moths, beetles, grasshoppers
- Titmice: aphids, leafhoppers, caterpillars, beetles
- Warblers: caterpillars, aphids, whitefly
- Woodpeckers: larvae, beetles, weevils, borers
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3 comments:
Very interesting , keep doing the good work!
This is perfect! Ever since adding our additional bird feeders and bird bath, I was wondering which birds were beneficial for which pests. Thanks for the nice, concise list.
Best regards,
Steve.
Thanks for the useful list of insects and their predators :) There's nothing like sitting back and watching others at work - even when they are birds! ... a garden without wildlife is a very sad garden indeed!
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