Best insectivores

The year-round birds seen in our area sometimes vary their diet with seed but insects often are at the top of the menu. Sometimes birds such as cardinals and chickadees will eat insects and feed them to their young for the protein. Other birds that predominantly favor insects are absent during the colder months because there are few insects to be had.

Gray Catbird has snagged a caterpillar

Here's a short list of who's who among common insect eats (in no particular order).

Gray Catbirds eat ants, beetles, grasshoppers, midges, caterpillars and moths.

Chipping Sparrows eat insects and seed that has fallen onto the ground. You may see them picking insects off shrubs and trees.

Downy Woodpeckers are always on the move searching  for small bugs as they peck away bits of wood under which the insects lie.

Yellow Warblers have wonderful songs. Their favorite meals are caterpillars. They also eat moths, mosquitoes and beetles.

Northern Mockingbird with a morsel

Northern Mockingbirds eat beetles, earthworms, moths, butterflies, ants, bees, wasps and grasshoppers.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, in addition to sipping nectar from flowers, eat small spiders for necessary protein.

Baltimore Orioles are colorful migrants sometimes seen in backyards. Besides nectar and fruit, they eat man insect species including tent worms.

Wrens are regular backyard residents who eat mostly insects and spiders.

Nuthatches and Brown Creepers climb down and up trees searching for insects in the bark.

Native sparrows demonstrate a hop-front-scratch-back dance to loosen soil to locate insects.

Do you have a lawn service that sprays insects or shrubs? That may make your lawn look nicer but you'll be eliminating an excellent source of food for the birds—and thus see fewer of them.