BIRDS THAT EAT INSECTS 



359 



Birds eat Insects. — The food of birds makes them of great eco- 

 nomic importance to agriculture in our country. A large part of the 

 diet of many of our native birds includes insects harmful to vegeta- 

 tion. Investigations undertaken by the United States Department 

 of Agriculture (Division of Biological Survey) show that a surpris- 

 ingly large number of birds once believed to harm crops really per- 

 form a service by killing inj urious insects . Even the much maligned 

 crow eats mice and harmful in- 

 sects as well as grain and fruit. 

 Swallows in the Southern states 

 kill the cotton-boll weevil, one of 

 our worst insect pests. Our earli- 

 est visitor, the bluebird, subsists 

 largely on injurious insects, as do 

 woodpeckers, cuckoos, kingbirds, 

 and many others. The robin, 

 whose presence in the cherry tree 

 we resent, during the latter part 

 of the summer does much good 

 by feeding upon noxious insects. 

 It has a 95% insect diet until 

 June, and after that time about 

 40% of its food is insects. Many 

 birds vary their diet, using the 

 food substances which are most 



abundant around them. The Food of some common birds. Which 



swifts or swallows eat flies, the ^i these birds should be protected by 

 , 111* j^ 1 ' man and why ? 



cuckoos and bluejays eat hairy 



caterpillars, which are eaten by few other birds, and much of the 

 wmter food of the chickadees consists of eggs of aphids or plant 

 lice. Ants are eaten by many species of birds ; beetle larvae are 

 preferred by crows, blackbirds, and robins. A pair of nesting" 

 robins were observed to dig out and eat from 50 to 70 cutworms 

 and earthworms in one day. Many observations of the feeding 

 of young birds by their parents indicate that birds eat a large 

 amount of food in proportion to their size and consequently 

 destroy vast numbers of injurious insects. They are of great 

 importance in checking outbreaks of insects. 



AMERICAN CROW 



ENGLISH SPARROW 



