A decent understanding of the foods birds consume can help us to get them closer to us. Birds help add life to the trees in your garden, put some natural sounds in your neighborhood, and simply make you feel closer to nature. Different kinds of birds eat different types of foods.
If you can discover what kinds of foods the birds are eating in your area, you might be able to utilize these foods to make them come nearer to your place. Here are some birds based on the food they eat:
Carnivores
These are ferocious hunter birds of prey. They love to consume meat, but they don’t hunt other birds. The bulk of their diets include small mammals, rodents, snakes, fish, and tiny frogs. Carnivorous birds include owls, eagles, large hawks, and falcons.
Avivores
Avivores are vigorous birds who consume other birds for survival. These birds, which include falcons, hawks, and crows, are identified by solid legs, wings, and talons. They are active fliers that seek smaller birds and pick the smaller ones with their claws and take them to their nest for a delicious dinner.
Granivores
Granivores are the types of birds that make grain as their principal food. Many birds belong to this section. They are the birds that are easy to draw in our backyards if only we know how to lure them with. Examples of granivores include sparrows, pigeons, parakeets, finches, doves, and cardinals.
Frugivores
Frugivores are the ideal fruit-eaters that we often see near our farms and in the woods. These sweetly-colored friends are our feathered planters. They work to sow the seeds of plants throughout the woods. These birds, which include robins, orioles, parrots, bananaquits, and blue jays, love berries, apples, raisins, plums, and bananas. A small trivia you should know: some bats consume fruits. However, they are not birds; they are a part of the mammal family.
Molluscivores
Molluscivores are fierce shorebirds that feed on oysters, snails, and slugs. Many molluscivores gather at the seashore during low tide to hunt for oysters and clams. Other birds of this kind prefer to stay in swamps to locate their favorite meal.
Insectivores
Insectivorous birds also rely solely on flesh for their diet, but this time, they prey exclusively on insects. Most insectivores are tiny, but these birds do a lot to help gardeners and farmers. They help to check the pest population that destroys plants. These avian companions of ours include bluebirds, phoebes, woodpeckers, warblers, and loud chirping sparrows. Many birds that are not strictly insectivores by nature hunt insects to nourish and nurture their young.
It’s just sad that when farmers spray their plants with insecticides, they also kill the birds that eat the dead insects. It’s one of the primary reasons why insect-eating birds are dying today.
Ophiophagous Birds
Ophiophagous birds are smart feathered creatures that hog snakes. There are just a few bird species that hold snakes as part of their primary diet. These include the snake eagles, secretary bird, and some herons and hawks.
Nectivores
Nectivores birds feed on delicious nectar from flowers. They help in the exclusive cross-pollination of flowers to make them produce and develop seeds. This is a brilliant symbiotic relationship that allows birds and plants to flourish together. Some of the most known insectivores include hummingbirds, honeyeaters, honeycreepers, spiderhunters, and sunbirds.
Piscivores
Piscivores are smart birds that wade or dive into the water to catch fish with their strong claws and specialized beaks. Some examples of piscivores include ospreys, kingfishers, cormorants, and seagulls.
Palynivores
Palynivores are adorable birds that eat pollen. There are not many birds that are strictly pollen-eaters. But a lot of nectivores and insectivores do consume pollen when foraging.
