What do baby birds eat? How to feed birds in your garden.
More than 52 million Americans feed wild birds or other wildlife near their homes, according to Bird Watching Daily. More than 80% of the approximately 1,300 participants surveyed by Millikin University said they feed birds to bring nature, beauty and bird sounds to their area.
Birds can also make great gardens because they provide an insect removal service that doesn’t rely on toxic chemicals, according to the Orange County Register.
Whether you’re trying to beautify your garden or rescue a baby bird that has fallen out of its nest, here’s the information you need.
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What do birds eat?
According to Celebrate Urban Birds, different species of birds eat:
- seed
- Berry
- fruit
- insects
- other birds
- eggs
- Small mammals
- fishes
- buds
- larvae
- Aquatic invertebrates
- acorns
- other nuts
- aquatic vegetation
- Grain
- dead animals
- garbage
- And much more
But not all of these foods are for the songbirds you may want to have in your yard. According to Celebrate Urban Birds, songbirds primarily eat insects and spiders during the spring and summer. In the fall and winter, birds that are not migrating usually eat fruits and seeds.
When buying birdseed for your garden birds, avoid mixes with split peas, beans, or dried rice, as well as pink or green chunks, which are likely dog biscuits. These ingredients are often added to cheaper seed mixes to bulk them up, but according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, they are not edible for many birds.
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What Birds Eat Safflower Seeds?
The following birds tend to stay in your garden if you make safflower seeds readily available, according to The Spruce:
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Black-headed Hawfinch
- blue jay
- Carolina Tit
- Downy woodpeckers
- evening hawfinch
- house finch
- Indigo Buntings
- Mourning doves
- Northern Cardinals
- Purple finches
- red-bellied woodpeckers
- Rose-breasted Hawfinch
- Tufted Tits
- white-breasted nuthatch
According to The Spruce, safflower seeds won’t attract the kinds of birds you might want to keep away. Common grackles, blackbirds and European starlings are not usually interested in these seeds, so you can provide food for some of the songbirds mentioned above without creating an incentive for these “bullybirds” to overcrowd your feeding sites.
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Which Birds Eat Mealworms?
The following birds eat mealworms, according to Birds and Bloom:
- throttles
- tit
- throttles
- tits
- wrens
- nuthatch
- kinglets
When feeding mealworms to birds, live worms may be the most effective — although dried mealworms are cheaper and require no grooming, according to Birds and Bloom.
Can birds eat bread?
Feeding bread to birds can be risky. According to Birds and Blooms, mold that quickly develops on bread can cause serious problems for birds. Larger pieces of bread can also block a bird’s digestive tract. For these reasons, you should not feed bread to most birds.
According to Birds and Bloom, you should also avoid feeding these foods to birds:
- Raw meat
- Selling seeds and nuts to people
- bacon
- Potato Chips
- Treasure
- red food coloring
- Old birdseed
- animal feed
What do young birds eat?
According to PawTracks, young birds eat most of the same foods as their parents, including worms, insects, and seeds.
If you’ve rescued a baby bird that fell out of its nest, you can also use puppy food that’s been soaked in water until it’s spongy, says PawTracks. Be careful not to feed a rescued baby bird water, milk, bread, other baked goods, or kitchen scraps.
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