What Do Birds Eat? | Best Conventional & Curious Diet Guide

Birds are said to be the most fantastic and adaptable creatures on earth that can survive in different environments, all thanks to their versatility in food. These feathery creatures can live by eating different kinds of seeds or hunting small mammals. Birds eating habits are the most interesting among all the animal creatures on earth.

Although it’s less common than dogs and cats, certain people have a craze for keeping these birds as pets. As a pet owner, the first and foremost thing that can keep your birds active and healthy is a balanced diet. If you are curious about what birds eat, this piece of writing by Pet Life Expert is for you. Through this guide, we’ll help you understand what do birds eat, healthy bird food options, and how it supports your pets nutritionally.

Introduction To Birds Diet | Understanding Their Preferences

Birds’ strategies to find and eat food can evolve and vary from breed to breed and age to age. Well, your query of what do I feed birds also depends on the time of the year, as their preferences can change for winter, summer, fall, and spring. As you know, not every bird is exactly alike, and when it’s about their diet, they can be very picky. 

Birds have that habit of eating their favorite ingredient and leaving the rest. Also, they might not like certain foods on one day and love them the other day. Hence, it is essential to consider birds food requirements to serve them the food accordingly. In addition, you can consult a vet at any point to understand their diet preferences.

Types of Bird Diets | Conventional & Unusual Options

Birds’ diets can significantly differ from species to species; some might like fruits or vegetables, while others prefer seeds. Here we’re going to elaborate on birds diet with conventional or curious diet options.

Conventional Diets

Bird conventional diet means the food given to pet birds. It’s the food from crops that are ideally treated with insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals. The chemicals used in the formulation of these diets are also good for farming practices like pests and weed control.

Unusual/Curious Diet

As the name says, this kind of diet is uncommon and is fed to any bird unexpectedly. Like conventional or specialized options, these diets are usually never introduced to birds before. However, it is essential to consider the nutritional needs and feeding styles of your birds.

List of Conventional Diet Options

Down here, we are going to familiarize you with some conventional diet options to help you know feeding birds options. 

1- Granivores (Seed Eaters)

These are the birds that primarily eat seeds and grains; hence, they are named granivores. Small birds with short bills are likely to fall into this category. These seed eaters will remove the seed’s husk and only eat the nutritious meal. While some seed eaters with slender bills can swallow the whole grain. Seeds can be:

• Crops
• Gizzards
• Carbohydrates

2- Insectivores (Insect Eaters)

As obvious from the name, insectivores are the type of birds that can eat a whole portion of protein-rich insects. The kind of insects they prey on for food are certain invertebrates, including worms, Mollusca, and spiders. Some types of insectivore bills are:

• Probing bills of the wrens
• Tearing bills of the shrikes
• Broad bills of nightjars

3- Frugivores (Fruit Eaters)

Frugivores are fruit-eating birds that have strong and substantial bills that make it easier to break the hard fruit shells to swallow. Some birds with sharp bills can easily peel off the outer rigid fruit to reach the juicy portion.

4- Raptors (Predators)

Raptors are carnivores by nature, and these species basically hunt specific prey like fish, mammals, reptiles, and even birds. These raptors have sharp bills that tear apart the prey’s meat. With clever eyesight, sharp claws, and strong legs, they have huge wings. Some types are given below:

• Shorter, broader wings to chase birds through trees (goshawks)
• Long tapered wings to catch birds in flight. (Like falcons)
• Huge finger-like wings for soaring. (eagles, vultures, and hawks)

5- Scavengers (Disambiguation)

The birds who eat dead animals and plant matter are referred to as scavengers, and they belong to a carnivore family. They are considered a crucial part of the ecosystem because they greatly help clean the environment. Some of the specific types of scavengers are listed down that vary based on their pecking order.

• Lappet Face Vulture: Have Solid Bills, Soar Lower, Keeps other species at bay
• White-headed Vulture: Strong bills, fill gizzard, backward-facing spine like tongue
• Hooded Vultures: narrower bills; feces contain bile salt to help the digestive system.

List of Unusual Bird Diet Options

Here comes the most exciting part of this article, “what do birds eat”, where we are going to talk about the uncommon bird that is usually not part of their routine diet. These are the parts of a curious diet, and using this ingenious method, birds usually extract food when there’s no other option available.

1- Honeyguides – Beeswax

Honeyguides are the most unique bird type that relies on beeswax for their diet. This beeswax makes the most percentage of their diet. Although this diet is considered indigestible for other birds and mammals. These birds have a special kind of thick skin, particularly near the eye parts. A swarm of bees is most probably the reason for honeyguides to be killed.

2- Hoatzin – Leaves

Hoatzin is the strange-looking, slow-moving, and clumsy bird that is found in South America. These birds rely on trees and leaves to satisfy their hunger. They are one-of-a-kind birds that rely on leaves and have a specialized stomach that breaks down all the greens. Their meals take up to 45 hours to digest.

3- Egyptian Vultures – Eggs

These Egyptian vultures are known to eat almost everything as food while finding it in the rubbish dump. With that said, their favorite food is ostrich eggs, which they eat to survive most of the time. The most interesting fact about these vultures is that they use stones to break only the top portion of those eggs, and their feast is almost ready.

4- Bat Hawks – Bats on the wing

Belonging to an insectivore family, these hawks rely on bats to fulfill their hunger. Although they are not successful in finding bats, their success rate still counts as 50% to catch bats. They gather at dawn at any bat colony, and when that bat comes out, they just begin to prey. According to a study, they catch one bat every 3 minutes, and they get completely fed within half an hour.

5- Vampire Ground Finch – Blood

With a thick and sharp beak, vampire ground finches are small brown birds that are found in the Galapagos Islands. They need to survive in the extremely cold conditions on that island. If you want to know about, what do vampire ground finch eat? they survive on the blood, which is usually from Nazca Booby and Blue-footed Booby. They get blood from larger birds in winter but switch to animal matter and plants in other seasons.

6- Palm-nut Vultures – Palm Nuts

These are the only vultures that digest the fruit of Rafia palm trees. Sometimes, they fly into palm tree sides and take a bunch of ripped fruit. These birds carry their found food to a specific perching place and eat it after removing the fleshy nut parts. They use their bills and claws to remove the outer part and leave the kernel when satisfied.

To Wind Up

Birds are interesting creatures with an extraordinary diversity of feeding strategies that vary as their habitats. Every species has a distinct role in its ecosystem, from large eagles hunting prey to small hummingbirds consuming nectar. We can better appreciate birds’ contribution to nature and take action to promote their well-being if we understand what can I feed birds. Remember to give your pets the essential care and nutrition they need, whether you are a pet owner or a birdwatcher. In this guide, you’ll get to know the different types of species that rely on different types of food, whether it’s eating a product, a mammal, blood, or another bird.

FAQs | Frequently Asked Questions