Birds add beauty, song, and natural pest control to our gardens. While bird feeders and baths are common ways to welcome feathered visitors, cultivating a garden that supports beneficial insects creates a sustainable ecosystem that naturally attracts a diverse bird population. Garden insects serve as essential protein sources for birds and their young, making your garden a natural dining spot for various avian species. By understanding which insects are most attractive to birds, gardeners can create habitats that support both helpful insects and the colorful birds that consume them.
Caterpillars: The Ultimate Bird Baby Food
Caterpillars are perhaps the single most important food source for nesting birds and their offspring. Research has shown that a single chickadee pair needs between 6,000-9,000 caterpillars to raise one brood of nestlings to fledgling age. These soft-bodied larvae are high in protein and easily digestible, making them perfect for growing baby birds. Caterpillars come in thousands of varieties, and while some may damage plants, their presence ensures a steady food supply for insectivorous birds like warblers, chickadees, and bluebirds. To attract caterpillars, incorporate native host plants like oak, cherry, willow, and birch trees, as well as native perennials that support a diversity of moth and butterfly species.
Grasshoppers: Protein-Packed Bird Magnets
Grasshoppers serve as substantial and nutritious meals for medium to large birds such as robins, bluebirds, and thrashers. These jumping insects contain high amounts of protein and are especially abundant during summer months, making them a reliable food source when birds are raising their young. While grasshoppers may occasionally damage plants, their value in the bird food chain typically outweighs any garden damage they might cause. Meadow-like areas with native grasses and diverse perennials provide an ideal habitat for grasshoppers, which in turn attract ground-feeding birds. Some bird species, like kestrels and meadowlarks, specifically hunt for these insects in open areas, indicating a healthy ecosystem.
Aphids: Tiny Insects with a Big Impact
Aphids might be garden pests, but they serve as critical food sources for smaller birds like warblers, chickadees, and wrens. These tiny sap-sucking insects reproduce rapidly, creating abundant food opportunities throughout the growing season. Many birds perform valuable garden services by methodically cleaning aphids from plant stems and leaves while foraging. Hummingbirds also occasionally feast on aphids for protein, complementing their typical nectar diet. Rather than immediately reaching for insecticides when you spot aphids, consider allowing small populations to persist as bird food or using a gentle water spray to manage numbers while leaving some for bird consumption.
Beetles: Diverse and Abundant Bird Food
Beetles represent the largest order of insects on Earth, making them a diverse and reliable food source for numerous bird species. Ground beetles, ladybugs, and other beetles provide substantial nutrition for everything from woodpeckers to thrushes throughout the season. Many beetle species are beneficial garden predators themselves, consuming pest insects that damage plants. Leaving some natural debris like fallen logs, leaf litter, and stone piles creates habitat for beetles that will, in turn, attract foraging birds. Some birds like flickers have specialized beaks and tongues specifically adapted for extracting beetle larvae from soil and rotting wood, highlighting the evolutionary relationship between these insects and their avian predators.
Crickets: Nighttime Singers, Daytime Bird Food
Crickets may serenade your garden at night, but during the day, they become targets for insect-eating birds like robins, thrushes, and sparrows. These chunky insects provide substantial nutritional value, especially for ground-feeding birds that hunt by scratching and poking through leaf litter. Crickets thrive in slightly moist environments with some cover, like under rocks or garden debris, making those areas prime hunting grounds for birds. Eastern bluebirds are particularly fond of crickets and will return regularly to gardens where these insects are abundant. Creating small brush piles at garden edges or leaving some areas with taller grass provides an ideal cricket habitat that will attract a variety of birds.
Ants: Tiny But Essential Bird Attractants
Ants might seem too small to matter, but they form a crucial component of many birds’ diets, especially species like flickers, woodpeckers, and wrens. Some birds like flickers specialize in ant consumption, using their sticky tongues to collect hundreds of ants in minutes from colonies in the soil or rotting wood. Ants are especially important during nesting season when parent birds seek protein-rich foods for their growing chicks. Many birds use a behavior called “anting,” where they rub ants on their feathers to apply formic acid, which may help control parasites and condition their plumage. Avoiding broad-spectrum insecticides and allowing natural ant populations to thrive in mulched areas, stone features, or garden borders creates valuable feeding opportunities for a variety of birds.
Spiders: Eight-Legged Bird Attractors
Though not technically insects, spiders deserve special mention as they are perhaps the most nutritious arthropods in the garden for birds. Rich in taurine and other essential nutrients, spiders are actively sought by birds like wrens, warblers, and nuthatches that specialize in gleaning prey from foliage and bark. Research shows that nestlings fed diets rich in spiders develop stronger immune systems and better feather condition than those without. Garden spiders control pest populations naturally while simultaneously serving as high-value bird food. Creating layered garden habitats with shrubs, perennials of various heights, and structural elements like trellises provides ideal hunting grounds for both spiders and the birds that eat them.
Bees and Wasps: Surprising Bird Food
While we value bees as pollinators, some bird species have evolved special techniques to safely eat bees and wasps despite their stingers. Summer tanagers and some oriole species specialize in catching bees and wasps mid-air, then carefully removing the stinger before consuming them. These insects provide excellent nutrition during the breeding season, particularly when birds need high-protein foods for their young. Non-aggressive native bee species and solitary wasps pose little threat to humans but create valuable feeding opportunities for specialized bird predators. Supporting diverse flowering plants that attract various pollinator species indirectly creates food resources for the birds that occasionally prey upon them.
Dragonflies and Damselflies: Aerial Bird Targets
Dragonflies and damselflies are not only beautiful garden visitors but also important food sources for aerial-feeding birds like swallows, swifts, and flycatchers. These insects spend their juvenile stage as aquatic nymphs, then emerge as flying adults that control mosquito populations while serving as high-protein bird snacks. Birds like kingfishers and herons feed on dragonfly nymphs in water features, while purple martins and other aerial insectivores catch adult dragonflies in flight. Adding a small pond or water feature dramatically increases dragonfly presence in your garden, subsequently attracting the birds that hunt them. Even bird species not typically known as insectivores, like hummingbirds, occasionally catch and eat small damselflies for protein supplementation.
Earwigs: Nighttime Garden Helpers and Bird Food
Despite their fearsome appearance, earwigs provide valuable garden services by consuming decaying plant material and small pest insects, while simultaneously serving as food for birds like robins, wrens, and towhees. These nocturnal insects hide in dark, damp places during the day, making them perfect targets for birds that specialize in probing crevices and leaf litter. Earwigs are especially valuable bird food in early spring and fall when other insects may be scarce. Creating habitat by leaving some leaf litter in garden beds or providing small stacks of damp cardboard in discreet corners gives earwigs places to hide, but still allows birds to find them during foraging activities.
Butterflies: More Than Just Garden Beauty
While we typically value adult butterflies for their pollination services and beauty, they also occasionally become food for quick birds like flycatchers, kingbirds, and phoebes. More importantly, their caterpillar stage provides critical nutrition for nesting birds and their young. Native butterfly species have co-evolved with native birds, creating ecological relationships that sustain both populations. Planting butterfly host plants like milkweed, aster, and passionflower not only supports butterfly populations but also indirectly feeds birds at various stages of the butterfly lifecycle. Some butterfly species, like monarchs, contain compounds that make them distasteful to birds, but many other species serve as important food sources throughout the growing season.
Flies: Underappreciated Bird Food Sources
Though often considered nuisance insects, flies of various species comprise a significant portion of many birds’ diets, especially aerial insectivores like swallows, swifts, and flycatchers. Flies complete important decomposition functions in the garden while serving as easily caught, protein-rich food for birds. Beneficial hoverflies, which resemble small bees or wasps, are particularly valuable as their larvae consume aphids while adults serve as both pollinators and bird food. Even compost-loving soldier flies provide excellent nutrition for birds while helping decompose garden waste. Creating habitat diversity that includes some decomposing material, like small compost areas or strategically placed logs, supports fly populations that, in turn feed numerous bird species.
Creating an Insect-Friendly Garden for Birds
To maximize beneficial insects that attract birds, focus on creating a chemical-free, diverse habitat with native plants that support the full lifecycle of insects. Native trees, shrubs, and perennials generally support significantly more caterpillar species than non-native alternatives, directly increasing food for birds. Leaving some areas of the garden slightly “messy” with leaf litter, brush piles, or unmulched soil creates microhabitats where insects can complete their lifecycle, providing continuous food sources for birds throughout the seasons. Incorporating water features, from simple bird baths to small ponds, attracts both insects and the birds that eat them. Remember that a garden supporting healthy insect populations might show occasional plant damage, but the resulting bird activity provides natural control that creates a balanced ecosystem over time.
In conclusion, cultivating a garden rich in beneficial insects creates a natural bird sanctuary that surpasses what feeders alone can offer. These insect populations provide essential nutrition for birds throughout their lifecycle, especially during breeding season when protein demands are highest. By embracing ecological relationships between plants, insects, and birds, gardeners can create thriving ecosystems that support biodiversity while bringing the joy of birdsong and color to their outdoor spaces. The occasional plant nibble from a caterpillar is a small price to pay for the privilege of witnessing parent birds gathering food for their young or listening to the dawn chorus of well-fed birds that consider your garden home.