Birds are famous for eating fruits, seeds, insects, and various foods. Some birds are also popular for eating mosquitoes. But not many people know the answer about do birds eat spiders?
The direct answer to this question is that many birds can eat spiders without any hesitation or harm except few poisonous spiders species. Know the birds that eat spiders by reading the below article.
Table of Contents:
- Why Do Birds Eat Spiders?
- What Kind of Birds Eat Spiders?
- How Do Birds Eat Spiders?
- How Often Do Birds Eat Spiders?
- Do Birds Keep Spiders Away? (Do Birds Help To Get Rid of Spiders?)
- Do Birds Eat House Spiders?
- Do Birds Eat Wolf Spiders?
- Can Birds Eat Poisonous Spiders?
- Do Birds Eat Spider Webs?
- Do Birds Eat Spider Eggs?
- Do Birds Eat Spider Mites?
- Final Words
Why Do Birds Eat Spiders?
Many birds eat spiders because it has various benefits for them. Birds eat spiders by hunting them, and they also feed spiders to their baby birds for their better growth and good immune system.
Parent birds only feed spiders to their offspring when they are ready to leave their nest. If there are different types of insects available in front of birds, they will choose spiders to eat.
You Might Also Like: Birds That Eat Mosquitoes
They overlook other insects. Spiders have an element in them known as taurine. It is an amino acid that is present in large amounts in a spider. Taurine has many developmental effects on birds. It helps the bird to get rid of anxiety. Taurine in birds also helps in promoting intelligence.
Along with this, taurine also helps in better eyesight in birds. So, if the bird will eat spiders, they will be strong, intelligent, and healthy. Spiders also have lots of proteins.
They are also a very nutritious food source for birds and offer high energy to them. During migration, spiders play a very important role as high-energy food is required at that time.
Some birds who do not eat spiders, especially small birds, can get food from spider webs (insects entangled there).
What Kind of Birds Eat Spiders?
Many birds eat spiders including many insect-eating birds, a large number of insectivorous birds, and some garden birds. Insect-eating birds, including bluetits, common blackbirds, wrens, and jackdaws.
The insectivorous birds are blackbirds, blue tit (European cousin of chickadee), sparrows, wrens, crows, and bluebirds. Cardinals, chickadees, flycatchers, orioles, titmice, towhees, and warblers are some birds that feed on spiders.
Blue tits feed on spiders in large numbers and feed spiders to their baby birds only when they are ready to leave the nest. Wrens are one of those birds that are big consumers of spiders.
Wrens can also eat large spiders. Carolinas also enjoys eating spiders like wrens. Hummingbirds also feed on spiders, but they can only eat small spiders.
How Do Birds Eat Spiders?
Like wolf spiders, some spiders do not use their spider web for grabbing and tangling insects as their food. They go outside in search of food and then become the food of birds.
Some birds visit their home to eat them, and along with this, they also eat the entangled insects on spider webs.
How Often Do Birds Eat Spiders?
Birds can eat spiders on a daily basis, but the amount should be adequate. They feed on spiders mostly in May and June than in July and August.
For example, in May, 13.1 percent of spiders were eaten, 14.3 percent in June, 7.9 percent in July, and 4.4 percent spiders were eaten in august.
Do Birds Keep Spiders Away? (Do Birds Help To Get Rid of Spiders?)
Sometimes, for some problems, nature has its control system. Birds play a very important role in controlling some issues of the system, like keeping the spiders away.
Birds are a threat to spiders, but small birds are not a threat to them as spiders can harm them. They are a significant threat to all spiders except the tarantulas, one of the extremely large spiders.
The most common birds like the robins and wrens, the US birds, feed on spiders on a daily basis. Spiders are the most important part of their meals. If birds do not come into your garden or backyard, you should plant some low-lying shrubs like the American beautyberry.
After planting, that plant leaves some nesting material, some food for birds, and some sources to cover the plant. You can place brush piles as a portion of food for the bird on the edge of your garden or in the backyard.
Birds will easily get attracted to plants and food, and then when they see the spiders over there, they will start feeding on them. And hence spiders will vanish from your garden and your backyard.
Big birds do not get caught in spider webs, but small birds get caught in them. So all small birds who want to feed on spiders should be very careful while feeding on them. Big spiders can also feed on small birds. That is why small birds should also stay from them.
Songbirds do not feed on the spider as much as other birds feed on them. Songbirds rarely have any problem with them. And domestic birds feed on spiders only when they are in flight.
Otherwise, they do not feed on spiders, they are kept indoors, and when they fly, the spider is a good treat. Not just spiders, birds also feed on some other insects that can harm your gardens.
If you will use birds to destroy them, you will reduce or will never need a pesticide to kill them because you already have a natural insect killer. As the usage of pesticides will be reduced, a good amount of money will be saved easily, and your garden will also get rid of harmful chemicals.
Do Birds Eat House Spiders?
Birds are a significant threat to small spiders, not big ones. House spiders are small spiders that almost every bird can eat, and they do not harm birds.
So, yes, birds do eat house spiders. There are a lot of house spiders on this earth. Some of these house spiders are listed below.
- Grass spiders
- American house spider
- Orb-weaver spiders
- Wolf spider
- Yellow sac spider
- Black widow
- Jumping spider
- Brown recluse
- Hobo spider
- Daddy longlegs
Do Birds Eat Wolf Spiders?
Yes, birds do eat wolf spiders as they are very small in size, and that is why it is a very frequent meal for birds. Birds have a very diverse appetite, and you can easily find them anywhere in this world.
They can eat almost anything from insects to fruits. There are a lot of birds that can eat wolf spiders, like the elf owl and screech. These birds and some other similar bird species are the predators of wolf spiders.
Birds can easily find them and then feed on them because wolf spiders do not use their web for catching their food. That is why they have to go outside to get their food. And when birds see them, birds eat them.
Can Birds Eat Poisonous Spiders?
The majority of bird species can eat spiders. They play an important role in keeping the population of spiders under control. Nevertheless, the majority of the birds are not going to eat a black widow spider (also known as a poisonous spider) more than once.
Bright red marks on the belly of poisonous spiders make them attractive to predators and make them a nasty meal. Birds do not look for black widows (poisonous spiders) specifically.
As black widows (poisonous spiders) contain toxins that can upset the digestive system of the birds. Their stomach gets upset because of the poison that is present in these spiders.
These toxins are not lethal, but they make sure these are something to avoid. The poison enters the birds’ bodies by eating black widows (poisonous spiders) and can cause conditions like fever, muscle spasms, chills, difficulty breathing, convulsions, blurred vision, and dizziness.
The effect will not stop here, and the poison will also infect and inflame the area around the bite.
Do Birds Eat Spider Webs?
No, birds do not eat spiderwebs. Many small birds use spider webs to build their nests. The spider silk in spider webs is very helpful in nest construction.
Those small birds who use them for this purpose are hummingbirds, vireos, gnatcatchers, and kinglets. And some birds visit spider webs to eat the insects that are entangled there. These birds are ruby-throated hummingbirds.
Do Birds Eat Spider Eggs?
Spider eggs are full of nutrition and are a good food source for some flies, birds, and wasps. So, yes, birds can eat them as they are good for their health. House wrens place spider egg sacs in their nests, and when these eggs start hatching, the baby birds can feed on them.
Do Birds Eat Spider Mites?
No, birds cannot eat spider mites. Those spider mites that suck blood are very dangerous for birds as they can harm birds badly, while those spider mites that live on plants are not harmful to birds, but still, they are not good for birds.
Final Words
Spiders are of different kinds, including small, large, and poisonous. Birds usually feed on small spiders and big spiders, but they do not eat poisonous spiders.
If you are suffering from many spiders, you can reduce the number of spiders by attracting birds to eat them.
Keep in mind that few birds do not show any interest in spiders. So make sure to attract only those birds who can quickly hunt spiders and consume 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.
