While many bluebird hosts feed bluebirds live mealworms, bluebirds find food in the wild using their keen eyesight that helps them spot prey while perched several yards above as well as using 6 different foraging techniques to capture prey.
It is really fascinating to learn just how adept songbirds are at finding food. Their hunting techniques, vision, agility, sense of hearing and focus enable them to hunt small insects, spiders and larva from several yards away.
And it becomes more interesting when considering how important it is for birds to conserve energy when foraging for food, especially during extremely hot or cold weather.
When it comes to how bluebirds find food in the wild, precision, versatility and adapting their foraging techniques for different situation is key to their survival.
In this article, you’ll learn all about how bluebirds find food, and how weather conditions can lead bluebirds to alter their bug hunting techniques.
- The Drop Foraging Method
- The Flycatching Foraging Method
- The Gleaning Foraging Method
- The Flight-Gleaning Forage Method
- The Hovering Forage Method
- The Hopping Forage Method
- How Weather and Seasonality Changes Foraging Technique Frequency
- 3 Ways Bluebirds Find Fruit Items to Eat
- Important Bluebird Food Resources
- References
In an older paper, Benedict Pinkowski described six different bluebird foraging methods, and how the frequencies of these methods changed throughout the seasons and during with different weather conditions (1977).
The six methods are described below, along with representative images. Images are not provided for every foraging technique because they are limited to photographs from our own observations.
The Drop Foraging Method
This is when a bluebird will sit on a perch and drop down to capture live prey it has already identified from its perched position.
Pinkowski noted characteristics of this method were that the drop came from low-standing perches, and the drop usually formed a triangular shape from the perch to the ground (1977). However, bluebirds have been observed performing this method from higher perches.
The drop foraging method is the most common way bluebirds find food. What is so fascinating about this method is their visual acuity when spotting food while perched very high.
An earlier observation recorded bluebirds successfully using this method while perching 30 feet above briar patches on powerlines intently watching the ground below.
Researchers Frank Preston and J. McCormick saw these bluebirds drop down from the powerlines and immediately retrieve caterpillars and other prey objects, some too small for them to correctly identify with binoculars (1948).
Rather than returning back to the wire where they were originally perched, bluebirds would take prey items to the poles of the powerlines to batter and stun the prey before eating it.
In addition to the height from which bluebirds could spot prey, the briars below the wires suggest bluebirds may also be able to distinguish prey through visual obstacles.
However, from Pinkowski’s observation, ground cover can become too much of a visual obstacle for bluebirds, which can sometimes lead them to shift to another foraging tactic.
The Flycatching Foraging Method
The flycatching form of bluebird foraging is where a bluebird will leave its perch and fly up into the air for aerial prey hunting.
Unlike the drop method where the bluebird drops down, the flycatching method involves and upward movement and a short aerial hunt.
The fly-catching method not only involves a significant amount of visual precision – with this foraging technique, bluebirds are finding food that is moving and possibly changing direction. This can require incredible focus and aerial agility for success.
The Gleaning Foraging Method
Gleaning involves bluebirds sitting on branches and picking out insects that way.
Pinkowski makes a distinction about bluebirds gleaning for his research classification versus other gleaning methods described in previous publications, and that is – other researchers describe gleaning as finding food on any non-aerial substrate including the ground.
But Pinkowsky excludes ground foraging from gleaning, limiting it to finding food on branches, attached leaves and tree trunks.
The Flight-Gleaning Forage Method
The flight-gleaning method is similar to the drop method in that the bluebird will sit on a perch, locate a prey object, and drop down – but the bluebird remains in flight/airborne while grasping prey.
There is sometimes a brief period of fluttering, Pinkowski said, but the key to the flight-gleaning method is that the bluebird has already located its prey and snatches it while still in the air. Imagine almost a touch-and-go technique.
The Hovering Forage Method
Hovering was not observed during Pinkowski’s study of eastern bluebirds. However, he and other researchers previously observed this foraging method in mountain bluebirds.
Other species of birds have been observed performing the hovering forage. And the difference between hovering and flight-gleaning is that hovering birds are observed fluttering over a given area of ground, trying to locate prey.
In other words, hovering is used to find prey and then snatch it, whereas with flight-gleaning, the prey has already been located while a bird was perched.
If you watch birds closely, you may observe house finches occasionally doing this in yards as well as Eurasian tree sparrows, to name a few.
Some birdwatchers believe the act of flapping and fluttering wings also helps scare up bugs, which means this method could have a two-pronged purpose – locating as well as arousing bugs into movement.
The Hopping Forage Method
Hopping is more of ground foraging tactic where a bluebird is grounded and searches for prey. With the hopping method, prey has not already been found from a higher perch. Instead, bluebirds search for prey along the ground.
According to Pinkowski, this has been observed in lawns and along roads and disturbed areas (tilling, fire, mowing, etc.). And if you watch the bluebirds in your backyard closely, you may observe them using this method from time to time.
How Weather and Seasonality Changes Foraging Technique Frequency
Of the listed foraging methods, bluebirds heavily rely on the drop method throughout the entire year.
If you are hosting bluebirds and spend time watching, this is one of the most common hunting approaches you will notice. And this is part of the reason why it is so important to have perching objects near bluebird nest boxes when trying to attract bluebirds to your property.
But an obstacle to the dropping method is ground cover. Thick grass or dense foliage on the ground can make it harder for bluebirds to forage this way. Therefore, according to Pinkowski’s observations, the drop method is used less in the late summer months compared to early springtime.
Despite the frequency of this method decreasing during the summer months, it is still the most used technique, and by a significant margin.
Later in the nesting season, gleaning and flycatching methods start to dramatically increase. Flycatching may also be one of the most primary methods used during the evening when insects can swarm.
Weather conditions can also influence how bluebirds hunt for food. During cold, rainy days, the drop method was the most common approach to foraging. And the same was true during warm, sunny days as well.
On those warm, sunny, favorable weather days, flycatching was another common tactic used. However, when the weather was bad, flycatching decreased.
Conversely, bluebirds alternated to the gleaning method instead of the flycatching method during bad weather.
Wind also effects the productivity of the flycatching method since aerial insects become less available.
3 Ways Bluebirds Find Fruit Items to Eat
During the winter, insects and other arthropods become harder to find. To survive, bluebirds shift their wild diet sources to fruit items.
When talking about fruit, this would mostly only include smaller fruits and berries. Juniper berries, honeysuckle berries, viburnum berries are some examples of the fruits they find. To learn a little more about a bluebird’s diet throughout the different seasons, you may want to look at our in-depth article.
During Pinkowski’s observations, he recorded three ways bluebirds will eat fruit items. They will either perch on a branch and eat the fruits, they can hover in the air while trying to grab a fruit item in their beak, or they may stand on the fruit itself.
From our observations, we have only ever witnessed the perched method and the flying method. The flying method was employed when berries were on less stable branches that bluebirds wouldn’t be able to stand on.
Besides bluebirds, the larger norther flicker in our area was observed doing this more often because he/she could not sit on the flimsy branches.
Bluebirds are not the only birds that eat berries or shift their diet to fruits in the wintertime. Many songbirds are dependent on fruits. We’ve observed bluebirds, northern flickers, titmice, robins and cedar waxwings, to name a few, feasting on fruits that remain during the winter.
While bluebirds, and other songbirds are capable of changing their diet and are incredibly skilled hunters, they still face risks. Foraging for food takes costs them a lot of energy.
Birds tailor their tactics in order to hunt most efficiently and conserve energy, but when there are no food sources or not enough nutritious diversity, they are at risk of starving to death, freezing to death because they can’t store enough fat, or becoming deficient in essential nutrients.
Feeding bluebirds live mealworms is incredibly helpful during periods of extreme weather (very hot and very cold). Mealworms are a great protein source. They are also a source of hydration. But they can be deficient in many minerals, and are know to be especially calcium deficient, a mineral vital to female birds during egg-laying.
Besides feeding your bluebirds and other birds live mealworms, creating a plant-diverse habitat in your yard will attract more bugs, larva and other arthropods that birds need. Furthermore, adding plants that fruit in the late fall and winter season can save your birds’ lives.
We have some great resources about what you can plant in your yard to help your birds thrive, especially in the winter. Within the articles below, we also have helpful tables and links that are easy to scan, and will give you some great ideas about how to turn your backyard into a complete wild bird sanctuary.
Important Bluebird Food Resources
Learn more about bluebird migration and plants that will help them thrive during the winter.
References
Preston, F.W. & McCormick, J.M. (1948). The eyesight of the bluebird. The Wilson Bulletin, 120-121.
Pinkowski, B. C. (1977). Foraging behavior of the Eastern Bluebird. The Wilson Bulletin, 404-414.
