A good understanding of the foods birds eat can help us to get them nearer to us. Birds help to add life to the trees in your backyard, put some natural sounds in your surroundings, and simply make you feel close to nature. Different types of birds eat different kinds of foods.
If you are able to discover what types of foods the birds are eating in your place, you might be able to use these foods to make them come nearer to your place. Here are the types of birds based on the food they eat:
Avivores
Avivorous birds are simply birds of prey; they eat other birds in order to live. These birds, which include hawks, falcons, and crows, are characterized by strong wings, legs and talons. They are agile fliers that pursue smaller birds and grab the smaller ones with their claws.
Carnivores
These are birds of prey. They love to eat meat, but they don’t feed on other birds. The majority of their diets include rodents, small mammals, fish, snakes and frogs. Carnivorous birds include eagles, owls, falcons, and large hawks.
Frugivores
Frugivores are the typical fruit-eaters that we often see in the woods or near our farms. These sweetly-colored avian friends are our feathered planters. They work to spread the seeds of plants throughout the forest. These birds, which include orioles, robins, bananaquits, parrots, and blue jays love apples, berries, plums, raisins, bananas and other fruits. By the way, some bats eat fruits, but they are not birds; they are mammals.
Granivores
Granivores are birds that make grain as their primary food. Many birds belong to this category. They are the ones that are easy to attract in our backyards, if only we know what to lure them with. Examples of granivores include pigeons, sparrows, finches, parakeets, cardinals, and doves.
Insectivores
Insectivorous birds also depend on flesh for their diet, but this time, they prey on insects. Most insectivores are small, but these birds do a lot to help farmers and gardeners. They help to control the population of pests that destroy plants. These avian friends of ours include phoebes, bluebirds, warblers, woodpeckers, and chirping sparrows. Many birds that are not insectivores by nature hunt insects to feed their young.
It’s just unfortunate that when farmers spray their plants with insecticides, they also destroy the birds that eat the dead insects. It’s one of the main reasons why insect-eating birds are disappearing today.
Molluscivores
Molluscivores are shore birds that feed on snails, oysters and slugs. Many molluscivores converge at the seashore during low tide to hunt for clams and oysters. Other birds of this type prefer to stay in swamps to find their favorite food.
Nectivores
These birds feed on nectar from flowers. They help in the cross-pollination of flowers to make them develop and produce seeds. This is a symbiotic relationship that allows plants and birds to thrive together. Some of the most known nectivores include honeyeaters, hummingbirds, honeycreepers, sunbirds, and spiderhunters.
Ophiophagous Birds
Ophiophagous birds are feathered creatures that eat snakes. There are just a few bird species that include snakes as part of their main diet. These include the secretary bird, snake eagles, and some hawks and herons.
Palynivores
Palynivores are birds that eat pollen. There are not many birds which are strictly pollen-eaters. But a lot of insectivores and nectivores do consume pollen when foraging.
Piscivores
Piscivores are birds that dive or wade into the water to catch fish with their specialized beaks or strong claws. Some examples of piscivores include kingfishers, ospreys, seagulls, and cormorants.
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