11 Beneficial Insect Eating Birds

[Miigwech]

Sorry cat lovers. Your cats kill many of the birds that we need to help control pests. Please keep cats indoors.

An abundant supply of insects to eat is not sufficient to attract birds to your plot. You will also need to have sufficient tree and shrub cover. This provides habitat in which the birds can nest, as well as protection from the weather and predators. Birds will also need a water body to drink from and bathe in. Meet these needs, and many beneficial birds will be attracted to your garden and help keep pest populations under control. Here are some of the more common species.

https://www.regenerative.com/magazine/eleven-beneficial-insect-eating-birds

[Submariner]

1. The overuse and misuse of herbicides and pesticides have so upset the balance

of nature in the insect world, the passerines and songbirds are already deprived of a healthy natural diet, instead they are unfortunately feeding in croplands ingesting the toxic insects that can survive Roundup, et al. The toughest of the insect lots that Dow and Monsanto haven't wiped out yet.

I already walk up on some ponds and notice I don't hear the frogs croaking anymore. On a hot summer night the crickets and croakers used to be deafening. The amphibians are disappearing. Another couple of decades our descendants won't be hearing insect chirps or songbirds.

Keeping cats indoors is the best for them and the birds, but I'm afraid we have already crossed the rubicon.

[Miigwech]

3. Afraid you are correct

so much bird loss due to many things ... but cats are a particular problem. We must do all we can to help our winged relatives.

Cats kill up to 3.7B birds annually
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/29/cats-wild-birds-mammals-study/1873871/

[Coventina]

2. Glass kills birds more than anything else. Cats are a drop in the bucket.

If you want to save birds, tear down glass skyscrapers, especially along migratory routes.