| The nutritional requirements for each of the avian species are very diversified. Age, sex, size, activity and reproduction functions also contribute to a variance in nutritional requirements. While a healthy, adult bird can thrive on a balanced maintenance diet, growth, healing, breeding, nesting and molting all require additional nutrients. Small birds need more food for energy than larger birds do, and reproducing females require more nutrients than males do. All natural and captive diets listed in this document are based primarily on the Spring-Summer diet of these birds. During these seasons, almost all avian diets contain a substantially higher percentage of insects (nearly 100% protein) than the remainder of the year. Nearly all baby songbirds are fed a primarily insect diet. | |||
 | Horned lark | 40-45% Animal food: beetles and their larvae, caterpillars and grasshoppers
Plant food: Redmaids, Oats, Wheat, Filaree, Silene, Miners lettuce, Tarweed | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix, and natural food items as available. |
| Black-headed grosbeak | Animal food: A great variety of insects and other invertebrates particularly beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, bees, wasps, spiders and snails. Plant food: 85% Fall/Winter, 30-40% Spring/Summer. Fig, Ederberry, cultured cherry, oats, raspberry, filaree, wheat, prune, milkthistle, redmaids. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, variety of chopped fruit, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available | | Blue grosbeak | Animal food: Beetles, bugs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, ants and numerous other insects. Plant food: Bristlegrass seeds are important food for the blue grosbeak in all regions. Cultivated and wild grasses are its chief source of food. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, variety of chopped fruit, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available |
 | Lazuli bunting | Animal food: Grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, true bugs, bees and ants.
Plant food: Seeds of weedy plants constitute more than one-third of spring and summer food: Wild oats, minerslettuce, needlegrass, canarygrass, annual bluegrass, melicgrass, velvetgrass, filaree, chickweed. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Green-tailed towhee | Animal food: Beetles, caterpillars, ants and other Hymenoptera, moths, grasshoppers, crickets, and bugs.
Plant food: 50-90%. Wild and cultured oats, barley, ryegrass, fescuegrass, tarweed, minerslettuce, bromegrass, bluegrass, star-thistle, nightshade, filaree, elderberry, pigweed, chickweed, etc... | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Rufous-crowned sparrow | Animal food: Grasshoppers, beetles, ants, and bugs consitute about one third of the bird's diet.
Plant food: Wild oats, filaree, minerslettuce, chickweed, dock, pigweed. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Chipping sparrow | Animal food: Well over half of its Spring/Summer diet: grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, leafhoppers, true bugs, ants, and wasps. Spiders are also eaten.
Plant food: Filaree, Pigweed, Bristlegrass, Panicgrass, oats, chickweed, needlegrass, bluegrass, redmaids, minerslettuce. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Brewer's sparrow | Animal food: nearly 100% of Spring/Summer diet: Beetles and their larvae, bugs, grasshoppers, ants, bees, wasps, aphids and other Homoptera, caterpillars, and spiders.
Plant food: Pigweed, Gramagrass, Purslane, Goosefoot, Timothy, Dropseedgrass, Dandelion. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Black-chinned sparrow | Animal food: Grasshoppers, beetles, ants, and bugs.
Plant food: Wild oats, filaree, minerslettuce, chickweed, dock, pigweed. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Vesper sparrow | Animal food: In Spring/Summer, half of diet. Beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, bugs, ants and other Hymenoptera are favorite foods.
Plant food: Knotweed, Turkeymullein, Pigweed, Oats, Canarygrass, Annual Bluegrass, Rabbitfootgrass, Ryegrass, Minerslettuce, Chickweed, Bromegrass, Barley, Redmaids, etc... | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Lark sparrow | Animal food: In Spring/Summer, half of diet. Grasshoppers make up more than half of animal diet. The balance consists mostly of beetles and caterpillars.
Plant food: Redmaids, Oats, Knotweed, Wheat, Tarweed, Turkeymullein, Filaree, Chickweed, Pigweed. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Sage sparrow | Animal food: Gleans over ground, rather than scratches for food; runs about under bushes, now and then stopping to pick up grasshoppers, bugs, beet leafhoppers, beetles, caterpillars, ants, also spiders
Plant food: eats weed seeds more in winter. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Savannah sparrow | Animal food: Beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, ants and other Hymenoptera, bugs, flies and various other insects. Spiders and snails are also taken locally.
Plant food: Summer=26%, Fall-Spring=60-90% of diet. Knotweed, Turkeymullein, Pigweed, Oats, Canarygrass, Annual Bluegrass, Rabbitfootgrass, Ryegrass, Minerslettuce, Chickweed, Bromegrass, Barley, Redmaids, etc... | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Grasshopper sparrow | Animal food: In addition to grasshoppers, they also eat caterpillars, ants, bugs, spiders, snails, and various other invertebrates.
Plant food: Spring/Summer=40%, Fall/Winter =71+% of diet. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Fox sparrow | Animal food: consists mainly of millipedes and ground beetles.
Plant food: Well over half of diet consists of: Ragweed, bearberry, grape, knotwood, raspberry, pigweed, hackberry, poison-oak, nightshade, tarweed, chickweed, barley. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Song sparrow | Animal food: Beetles, grasshoppers and crickets, caterpillars, ants and other Hymenoptera, and bugs.
Plant food: Half of Spring/Summer diet, and nearly all of the Winter/Fall diet consists of: Pigweed, Knotweed, Nightshade, minerslettuce, oats, star-thistle, chickweed, bromegrass, goosefoot, filaree, tarweed, panicgrass, blackberry, dock, elderberry, spurry, wheat. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Lincoln's sparrow | Animal food: One third of Spring/Summer diet consists of: beetles, ants and other Hymenoptera, bugs, grasshoppers, spiders, and millipedes.
Plant food: Pigweed, Barley, Sedge, rabbitfootgrass, chickweed, goosefoot, mayweed, knotweed, star-thistle, clover. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Golden-crowned sparrow | Animal food: Very small amount of ants, wasps, bees, caterpillars and beetles.
Plant food: Nearly all of diet consists of: Flowers of various plants, fescuegrass, oats, star-thistle, poison-oak, ryegrass, bromegrass. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| White-crowned sparrow | Animal food: Parasitic Hymenoptera, ants, caterpillars, beetles, grasshoppers, bugs, and spiders.
Plant food: 65-100% of diet: Pigweed, Oats, Annual bluegrass, mayweed, chickweed, minerslettuce, tarweed, star-thistle, nightshade, goosefoot, blackberry, etc... | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Dark-eyed junco | Animal food: In Spring and Summer, insects constitute about half or more of their diet.
Plant food: Primarily ground-feeding seed eaters. They are partial to seeds of common weeds. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Brown-headed cowbird | Animal food: Grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, other insects, spiders, and myriapods.
Plant food: 50-95% of diet: Weed seeds are leading food items: Bristlegrass, oats, timothy, ragweed, corn, sunflower, knotweed, panicgrass. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Rosy finch | Animal food: ants, beetles, bugs, caterpillars, spiders, grasshoppers.
Plant food: 90-100% Lewisia, oats, pine, wheat, peppergrass, sedge, timothy, cinquefoil, penstemon, fescuegrass, knotweed, redmaids, rockcress. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Pine grosbeak | Animal food: Beetles, caterpillars, Hymenoptera and other insects, and invertebrates.
Plant food: 85-100%. Largely on fruits of trees, occasionally forages on weed seeds: Snowberry, willow, dogwood, honeysuckle, pine, minerslettuce, strawberry, ash. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, variety of chopped fruits, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Purple finch | Animal food: aphids and caterpillars.
Plant food: 90-100% buds, fruits and seeds: elm (bud and seed), tuliptree, apple (bud), cherry and peach (bud and fruit), pear (bud), redcedar, maple (bud and fruit), sycamore, ragweed, aspen (bud), dogwood, honeysuckle, sweetgum, cocklebur, ash. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Cassin's finch
House-finch | Animal food: aphids and caterpillars.
90-100% Plant food: weed seeds: Filaree, turkeymullein, mustard, knotweed, fig, prune, pigweed, star-thistle, chickweed, wildradish, tarweed, minerslettuce, elderberry, corn spurry, sedge, eriogonum, apple, pine. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Red crossbill | Animal food: spiders, caterpillars, fly larvae, beetles and their larvae, Hymenoptera, plant lice and spittlebugs. Most of these are obtained from spruces, pins, or other conifers.
Plant food: 90-100% Conifer seeds: Pine (66%), larch, hemlock, spruce, fir, douglasfir, ragweed. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, pine nuts, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Pine siskin | 80% Animal food: Caterpillars, plant lice, spiders, bugs and fly larvae.
Plant food: Feeds on pine and alder seeds, but a larger proportion of their food consists of weed seeds: Filaree, Pine, Alder, Star-thistle, Eucalyptus, Minerslettuce, Sunflower, Chickweed, Douglasfir, Silene. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, pine nuts, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Lesser goldfinch
Lawrence's goldfinch American goldfinch | Animal food: 50% in summer: aphids and caterpillars.
Plant food: nearly 100% except in summer: Sunflower, Star-thistle, Filaree, Tarweed, Pigweed, Turkeymullein, Oak. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| Evening grosbeak | Animal food: Beetles, caterpillars, Hymenoptera and other insects, and invertebrates.
Plant food: 85-100% (21% summer). Ponderosa pine, wild cherry, cedar, manzanita, dogwood, Russian olive, Boxelder, Hackberry, Snowberry, Serviceberry, Sumac, Ash. | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, variety of chopped fruits, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
| English House sparrow | 2-10% Animal food: mainly beetles, dung beetles, May beetles, Japanese beetles, and grasshoppers. To a lesser extent: caterpillars and moths, fly larvae, bugs, ants, bees, wasps and other insects.
Plant food: Wheat, Oats, Corn, Sorghum, Barley, Knotweed, Pine | Adult Maintenance Diet plus mealworms, variety of chopped fruits, commercial wild bird seed mix and natural food items as available. |
RESOURCES:
American Wildlife And Plants: A Guide To Wildlife Food Habits, Martin, Zim And Nelson, Dover Books.
The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide To The Natural History Of North American Birds, Ehrlich, Dobkin, Wheye, Simon & Schuster.
Brukner Nature Center: Primer Of Wildlife Care And Rehabilitation, Patti L. Raley
The Audobon Society Encyclopedia Of North American Birds, John K. Terres, Wings Books
This page was created, and is maintained by Kelly Jensen
Last update: April 17, 1997