Birds visit the garden to eat fruits, and apples are preferable for all breeds of birds. But you can go to the market or get an apple from the garden for birds. Let’s dive into the brief answer to the question, do birds eat apples?
Yes, we can feed birds apples that humans normally eat. Birds get nutrition from these apples as they are a good source of vitamins, and apple is a very cheap source of natural bird food.
- Are Apples Good For Birds?
- What Kind of Birds Eat Apples?
- How To Feed Apples To birds?
- Do Birds Eat Apples From Trees?
- Do Birds Eat Apples In The Winter?
- Do Garden Birds Like Apples?
- Are Apples Toxic To Birds?
- Summary
Are Apples Good For Birds?
Yes, apples are a good addition to a bird’s diet because they are very nutritious and delicious. Besides, apples are also very healthy for all breeds of birds.
While serving apples to the birds, keep in mind that apples are entirely safe for your birds to eat. If they are peeled off and sliced before serving to birds, then remove the seeds because it can be dangerous if birds will eat apple seeds.
Apple seed has a toxin that is poisonous to all breeds of birds. However, the flesh of the apple is a good fruit for birds, but apple seeds are not.
Apple flesh is healthy because it contains those vitamins and minerals that are good for birds. If a bird eats an apple a day, these vitamins and minerals are enough to stay all day long without eating anything else.
What Kind of Birds Eat Apples?
Birds that love to eat apples as their food include Eastern bluebirds, buntings, Gray Catbirds, House Finch, pine grosbeaks, and cardinals.
It also includes the birds like American crow, downy woodpecker, grosbeaks, northern cardinal, purple finch, mockingbirds, and northern flicker.
These birds also eat apples such as blue jay, thrashers, American robins, hairy woodpeckers, red-breasted sapsuckers, and red-headed woodpeckers. Fewer species include waxwings, scarlet tanager, European starling, wrens, cedar waxwing, eastern towhee, and red-bellied woodpecker.
Can Birds Eat Honey?
How To Feed Apples To birds?
After taking the apple, cut it into two halves and put the pieces on the bird feeder.
There is another method of feeding apples to birds. If you do not want to cut the apple in half, then place the apple on a branch by forcing it and impelling it on the branch to keep it in its place.
There is a problem: small birds will not eat the apple this way, but the crows will eat an apple. One more thing, be aware of crows because sometimes they also eat other birds’ food. Can birds eat grapes?
Do Birds Eat Apples From Trees?
Yes, birds can eat apples off the tree. Instead of buying apples from the market, please grow them in your home, backyard, or garden. When you are plucking them, leave some apples for birds to eat.
Do not worry about apple ripening, as birds also eat them. Cut those ripe apples into two or more slices and place them on the bird feeder. But you must slice those apples in half and then skewer or impale them on the branches of different trees.
You can also nail those apples in slices on trees to feed birds. Fresh fruit like apples attracts birds to your garden or home.
If you cannot do the above method, then there is another option. You have to cut apples in slices without peeling them and then remove all seeds present in them as they can harm birds.
You can also cut apples in two half length-wise pieces for some birds like hummingbirds by removing each slice’s center (the core). After then, you can add sugar to it to attract birds.
After then, put those apple slices on the bird feeder, having a spike on it. The spike hold fruits, so then birds will eat apple easily.
Do Birds Eat Apples In The Winter?
Those birds who eat fruits migrate in winter. And those who live in snowy areas enjoy their all year. They do not just eat apples but also eat other fruit, including oranges, bananas, grapes, etc.
Especially the sapsuckers visit the garden in the winter season. Sapsuckers can eat fresh and ripen both types of apples hanging on the tree.
Can Birds Eat Oranges? (Important things You Should Know)
You can serve chopped apples to birds or can modify their shape by using different methods. Put peanut butter on a tree to place peanut bits on the tree trunk. Pour melted suet into an ice cube tray to turn its texture from melted to hardening.
Remove that tray from the freezer when it is about to change its texture from melted to solid. And then put apple bits and other bird food as a choice in it.
After adding it, put that ice cube tray back in the freezer to turn it into a solid. Once it is done, your cubed bird food is ready.
The fruits with higher water content, such as pears and apples, can be great food for birds, and in addition, they have high sugar contents, which keep the birds energetic.
To give these fruits food, they can be placed on the bird table or even on the floor after splitting in half so birds can easily have them. Birds like blackbirds, waxwings, thrushes, and robins enjoy these fruits.
Survival for birds becomes hard in the winter season. It is even more challenging for baby birds to eat foods as they are lightweight according to their body size, so they dissipate heat faster to compensate for this heat loss. They eat a lot of food, but many of us are unaware of what to give them to eat in winter.
Do Garden Birds Like Apples?
Birds can eat most of fruits except those with seeds and pits. It can cause serious damage to the birds if they eat seeds, so it is recommended that before feeding garden fruits like apples, pears, apricots, or peaches to the birds, remove all the pits and seeds.
Most garden birds like robins, blackbirds, and hedge sparrows can eat bird seeds, apples, nuts, and mealworms.
For feeding birds in the garden, the apple is best to ensure that they are getting the right nutrition to live their lives.
Are Apples Toxic To Birds?
No, apples are not toxic to birds, but the seeds are somehow toxic if they eat them. No one faced death or any health issue after feeding apples to any bird breed.
The reason is simple: remove seeds before giving an apple to any bird. And take special care of this thing while serving food to birds.
Apple seed never kills the bird, but it is toxic because it contains Amygdalin, a small amount of it in them. And Amygdalin has a very smaller amount of Cyanide in it.
The total amount of Amygdalin in the seeds of an apple is about 0.15 mg. According to the calculations, 1g of Amygdalin equals 65 mg of Cyanide if we combine the seeds of 20 apples.
So, removing seeds from apples and other fruits is good before serving them to birds.
Birds love to eat fruits, but some fruits are safe for birds, and some are not. Seeds of some fruits, including apples, pears, and pits like apricots, cherries, and peaches, contain cardio-toxic Cyanide in a small amount.
Due to the toxicity of apple seeds and pits, birds are not allowed to eat them. Also, you should not provide any of the above fruits containing seeds, and make sure to remove the seeds before feeding them to birds.
Summary
Apple is one of the most popular fruits humans eat, and it is also healthier to feed birds. You can feed apples to the birds by various methods, as discussed above in the post.
But before offering apples to the birds, ensure that you have removed the seeds inside the apple. Make tiny slices of apple so that birds can easily eat them.
Follow me on
Birdskeeping is supported by its readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Also, as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases without costing you extra.
