Bugged by bugs?

Male cardinal with a caterpillar

Bugs of all types are at their peak in the backyard: everything from destructive pests such as weevils and scale insects to beneficial insects such as katydids and butterflies.

Many of the backyard birds that we attract to our feeders actually require a healthy diet of insects as well. Birds that we think of as seed-eaters, such as the Northern Cardinal, actually prefers insects during the summer.

Other common birds—Barn Swallows and Purple Martins, for instance—eat insects almost exclusively.

Insects are high in protein and easy to feed to nestlings.

But who is eating what right now?

Cardinal. Beetles, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers, cicadas, flies, centipedes, spiders, butterflies and moths.

Chickadee. Moths, caterpillars, flies, beetles, plant lice, scale, leafhoppers, tree hoppers, aphids, leaf miners and spiders.

Tufted Titmouse. Caterpillars, beetles, ants, wasps, stinkbugs, tree hoppers, spiders, and snails.

Mockingbird. Beetles, earthworms, moths, butterflies, ants, bees, wasps and grasshoppers.

Catbird. Ants, Japanese beetles, midges, grasshoppers, caterpillars and moths.

Common Grackle. Beetles, spiders, grasshoppers and caterpillars.

Starling. Grasshoppers, beetles, flies, caterpillars, millipedes, spiders and Japanese beetles (the adult and the grub).

Downy Woodpecker. Beetles, larvae that live in wood or tree bark, ants, caterpillars, bark beetles and apple borers.

Carolina Wren. Caterpillars, moths, stinkbugs, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and cockroaches.

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird snags a fly

House Wren. Beetles, caterpillars, earwigs, daddy longlegs and flies.

Northern Flicker. Ants, beetles (gathered from the ground or from "cow paddies"), flies, butterflies, moths and snails.

White-breasted Nuthatch. Weevil larvae, wood-boring beetle larvae, click beetles, most other beetles, tree hoppers, scale insects, ants, gall fly larvae, tent caterpillars, gypsy moths, stinkbugs and spiders.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Mosquitoes, gnats, fruit flies and spiders. They catch insects in mid-air or pluck them from spider webs. (Hummingbirds need protein to thrive; the nectar furnishes them with the fuel to help them find the protein sources.)

Robin. Grasshoppers, beetle grubs, caterpillars, cutworms and (of course) earthworms.

Eastern Bluebird. Caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles, crickets, weevils, crickets and an occasional ant, fly, centipede, sowbug or snail. They also love mealworms. Mealworms are available at The Bird House in either live or in dried form.

Baltimore Oriole. Beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, moths, flies, spiders, snails, tent caterpillars, gypsy moth caterpillars, fall webworms, spiny elm caterpillars and the larvae within plant galls.