Ant-eating birds

Many ant-eating birds, including woodpeckers, nuthatches, and chickadees, are frequently seen in gardens and yards because they prey on ants and other pests. These birds typically eat ants that are crawling across trees and in gardens. Most birds regularly consume ants, some ants are essential to their diets while others are more opportunistic.

For smaller birds, eating ants makes a lot more sense, but larger birds only sometimes do so since it takes a lot of energy to catch them, and bigger, less agile birds need a lot more ants to fulfill their nutritional demands.

Northern Flickers, Pileated Woodpeckers, European Green Woodpeckers, and Downy Woodpeckers are regularly spotted in backyards and gardens looking for ants, larvae, and eggs. In general, compared to other bird species, woodpeckers eat more ants. Sometimes, ants make up more than half of a woodpecker's diet. They will search the ground for food, burrow into the earth with their beaks, then devour the ants with their sticky tongues. The northern flicker and ground-feeding green woodpecker are more prone to employ this strategy. On cedar trees, other woodpeckers, like the Pileated Woodpecker, may hunt for ants. They use their powerful beaks to make wide, rectangular incisions in an effort to make certain black carpenter ants rich. Then hundreds of ants will be sucked up and thoroughly swallowed.