Sasha CampbellHaving birds in the garden adds beauty and helps control pests naturally.
Many birds feast on harmful insects and pests, protecting plants from damage.
This article will cover some pest-eating birds, their prey, and how to attract them to your garden.
Below is a list of garden-friendly birds that are beneficial to have around. These birds help control pests that can otherwise damage plants or be a nuisance in the garden.
1. Swallows
People know swallows for their graceful flight and ability to catch insects in midair [1]. They will eat flying insects like flies, beetles, wasps, moths, grasshoppers, and mosquitoes.
Moreover, a single barn swallow can consume up to 850 insects daily.
How to Attract Swallows
Swallows favor open areas near water, such as ponds or streams. If your garden has a water source nearby, you’re more likely to attract them.
Nesting boxes high on buildings or tall poles can also attract tree swallows [2].
2. Swifts
Swifts are also excellent aerial hunters, making them valuable insect-eaters for any garden.
They eat flying insects like mosquitoes, flies, thrips, flying ants, and moths. This provides excellent pest control for gardeners.
How to Attract Swifts
Swifts nest in high places. Therefore, providing tall, open areas without obstacles can encourage them to visit.
Swifts often nest in caves, old buildings, and holes in trees. Also, avoid heavy pesticide use, which can deplete the insect population they depend on.
3. House Martins
House martins are small, social birds that excel at aerial hunting. Their primary diet consists of flying insects, including flies, aphids, and beetles.
They are also mainly active during the summer when insect populations are high.
How to Attract House Martins
House martins often build mud nests under eaves. Therefore, providing areas with mud puddles nearby can help.
Also, avoid disturbing existing nests, as these birds often return yearly to the same nesting sites [3].
4. Blackbirds
Blackbirds are ground feeders that enjoy insects such as beetles, caterpillars, snails, slugs, and grubs. So, they’re great for keeping soil-dwelling pests under control.
How to Attract Blackbirds
Create a welcoming environment for blackbirds. Leave some soil exposed or covered with a thin layer of mulch. This way, it is easy for them to forage.
A shallow birdbath is also appealing, as blackbirds enjoy bathing.
5. Warblers
Warblers are small, colorful songbirds. Their diets include spiders and insects like caterpillars, gnats, and beetles.
They often search for insects around tree bark crevices. These birds are excellent for gardens and backyards with small trees.
How to Attract Warblers
Gardens with plenty of foliage draw warblers. They are agile foragers who pick insects from leaves, branches, and tree bark.
Native plants, shrubs, and trees that harbor insects are particularly attractive to them.
Freshwater sources can also entice warblers to linger in your yard. This includes birdbaths and small fountains.
6. Blue Tits
Blue tits are also small insect hunters. They eat caterpillars, aphids, the larvae of flies, and other soft-bodied insects that can damage garden plants.
They will also go after spiders and beetles.
How to Attract Blue Tits
Hang nesting boxes up high to attract blue tits. These birds also enjoy gardens with plenty of native plants, shrubs, and trees, where they can forage for insects.
You can also offer peanuts and black sunflower seeds to keep them around.
7. House Sparrows
House sparrows are good to have around your garden as they feed on various insects. These include ants, beetles, wasps, caterpillars, mealworms, and aphids.
They are beneficial during the summer when they collect insects to feed their young.
How to Attract Sparrows
Sparrows are ground foragers. Therefore, they appreciate gardens with plenty of open soil. Offer millet, cracked corn, or sunflower seeds to attract these birds.
8. Robins
Robins are beloved bug-eating birds. They love worms, beetles, grubs, sowbugs, millipedes, caterpillars, centipedes, and other pests.
They’re great for keeping soil pests in check. You’ll often see them hopping across lawns and along the edges of driveways.
How to Attract Robins
Robins enjoy open areas. Therefore, keeping patches of bare soil in the garden and low-cut lawns where they can forage is a great way to encourage them.
Bird baths are also appealing to robins.
9. Thrushes
Thrushes, including species like the song thrush, feed on snails, slugs, and earthworms. They will also go after insects like beetles, wasps, flies, and caterpillars.
How to Attract Thrushes
To attract thrushes, provide an area with dense shrubbery or trees for cover.
Moreover, they’re often seen foraging on the ground. Therefore, throwing food like mealworms or birdseed in open garden areas will encourage them.
Birdbaths are also popular with thrushes, as they enjoy drinking and bathing from shallow water features.
10. Woodpeckers
Woodpeckers are known for drilling holes in trees to find food [4].
They will consume wood-boring insects like beetle larvae, termites, and carpenter ants. They will also go after grasshoppers and ticks.
How to Attract Woodpeckers
Provide suet feeders. Also, keep dead or dying trees in your garden, if possible, as they offer a natural food source for woodpeckers.
Woodpeckers also appreciate water sources like birdbaths.
11. Owls
Owls are nocturnal hunters that help control a variety of pests. These include rodents, insects, lizards, and even snakes.
Their presence can reduce yard and garden pests, especially at night.
How to Attract Owls
Install nesting boxes to provide a safe place for owls to roost and raise their young. Also, avoid using rodenticides, which can harm owls when they consume poisoned prey.
Besides, you can plant tall trees or leave open areas for hunting. Owls prefer habitats that allow them to spot their prey with ease.
12. Finches
Finches are small, colorful birds that primarily feed on seeds.
These birds also have a diet that includes small insects occasionally. These insects include mealworms, wax worms, cucumber beetles, and leafhoppers.
They may also eat Colorado potato beetles, caterpillars, and flea beetles. So, they’re suitable for gardens.
How to Attract Finches
Provide nyjer and sunflower seeds in specialized feeders, as these are favorites for finches.
You could also plant coneflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers. These plants attract them.
A birdbath will also encourage goldfinches to visit your yard.
13. Bluebirds
Bluebirds are keen to catch moths, weevils, beetles, angleworms, and caterpillars. They will also hunt black olive scales, grasshoppers, crickets, and termites.
How to Attract Bluebirds
Bluebirds favor open areas with scattered trees or shrubs where they can perch and scan for food. You can also supply fresh water using a fountain for them.
Bluebirds also appreciate mealworms, nuts, and seeds, so place these near nesting areas to encourage them to stay around.
14. Cardinals
Cardinals eat seeds and insects, including beetles and grasshoppers. They also eat centipedes and caterpillars. Their insect diet is especially beneficial when they feed their young primarily on insects in the summer.
How to Attract Cardinals
Cardinals love fruits like blueberries, mulberries, and some berries. They will also appreciate suet in winter.
These birds prefer gardens with dense, low shrubs for cover. Planting shrubs and berry plants, like dogwood and viburnum, will provide food and shelter.
15. Chickadees
Chickadees are small but effective insect hunters. They will consume pests like lice, weevils, mealworms, sawflies, and scale insects.
How to Attract Chickadees
Consider hanging feeders with food like sunflower seeds and suet to welcome chickadees.
These birds are also drawn to gardens with small shrubs and trees, which provide nesting and foraging spots.
16. Grosbeaks
Grosbeaks eat a wide variety of pests. These pests include earwigs, spruce budworms, snails, borers, and true bugs.
Grosbeaks have powerful beaks. They use them to eat large insects, like beetles and caterpillars.
How to Attract Grosbeaks
Grosbeaks will eat mealworms, sunflower seeds, suet, safflower seeds, some fruits, and other foods that birds eat. Therefore, provide them with these treats, and they may stick around.
Moreover, dense foliage and tall shrubs offer grosbeaks the cover they prefer for nesting.
17. Nuthatches
Nuthatches are agile birds that search for insects like stink bugs, ants, flies, wasps, and treehoppers. They’re beneficial for pest control on garden trees and shrubs.
How to Attract Nuthatches
Nuthatches enjoy yards and gardens with mature trees where they can find bark-dwelling insects.
You can also sprinkle peanuts and sunflower seeds outside to attract them.
18. Oriole
Orioles feed on fall webworms, gypsy moths, and butterflies. They also eat grasshoppers, tent caterpillars, and other soft-bodied insects. Their diet helps control pests harmful to fruit trees and flowering plants.
How to Attract Orioles
Gardens with fruit trees and flowering shrubs attract orioles. Providing slices of fresh oranges in feeders can also appeal to these birds.
A mix of fruit and water will support orioles and keep them around to manage insect populations.
19. Titmice
Titmice are known for their love of snails, spiders, and insects like caterpillars. These birds are most helpful in spring. Their appetite for caterpillars aligns with a caterpillar boom that can damage young plants.
How to Attract Titmice
Titmice are fond of clean, fresh water. Therefore, they need to be provided with a clean water source.
To attract titmice, place bird feeders in secluded areas. Use black oil, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and mealworms for food.
20. Phoebes
Phoebes are skilled at catching flying insects such as flies, cicadas, dragonflies, and midges. These insect catchers may also go after flies, wasps, and moths.
How to Attract Phoebes
Open areas with flowers and vines attract phoebes. So, planting shrubs like elderberries and vines like grapes may attract them.
21. Nighthawks
Nighthawks are active at dusk. They eat flying insects, like moths, grasshoppers, caddisflies, and mosquitoes.
They also go after many bugs at night and winged termites or ants. They’re particularly beneficial for gardens that need nighttime pest control.
How to Attract Nighthawks
Open areas on the ground consisting of gravel, wood chips, or sand will appeal to nighthawks. Also, you can use artificial lighting in the garden at night to attract them.
22. Vireos
Vireos eat leafhoppers, caterpillars, beetles, and other insects on leaves and branches. They’re valuable for controlling leaf-eating insects in the garden.
They may also eat walking sticks and lacewings.
How to Attract Vireos
Dense foliage attracts vireos, allowing them to forage for insects. Therefore, planting native shrubs and trees provides a natural habitat for them.
23. Wrens
Wrens feed on caterpillars, daddy longlegs, beetles, damselflies, moths, and other insects.
These insect-loving birds will also feed on spiders, mosquitoes, and stink bugs.
How to Attract Wrens
Wrens love trees or bushes, which give them ample cover for nesting and hunting.
You can also scatter peanut pieces, sunflower chips, and mealworms in your backyard to attract them.
Takeaway
Inviting insect-eating birds into your garden or farm is a delightful way to manage pests naturally. From chickadees to bluebirds, each species brings its benefits and contributes to a healthy ecosystem.
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