Fruit is a preferred food for many different birds. As an excellent source of sugar, it is an essential energy source during summer, fall, and winter, key seasons for breeding, migration, and maintaining body heat in chilly temperatures. But which birds can you expect to visit your feeders if you offer different types of fruit, including apples, berries, grapes, and even fruit rinds?
Fruit Feeders at The Registry of Nature Habitats
About Fruit
Birds can eat many different types of fruit in many different conditions. All fruits that are suitable for human consumption are also nutritious for birds. Birds will also eat other types of fruit that are not typical human foods, such as toxic types of berries, as well as damaged or overripe fruit that would not be tasty to humans. Fruit bits that cling to discarded rinds or large seeds, such as pumpkin seeds, can also be great for feeding birds.
The most popular fruits birds eat include:
- Apples
- Cherries
- Elderberries
- Plums
- Oranges
- Mulberries
- Crabapples
- Concord grapes
- Serviceberries
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Raisins
- Pumpkins
- Prickly pear
Depending on the bird species, the ripeness of the fruit, and the type of fruit, birds might eat the flesh, sip the juice, or both. Small fruits can even be swallowed whole, and birds will visit fruit trees before they are fully ripe and as long as there are a few fruits available after the prime harvest season. On farms and orchards this can be a problem, since birds can easily damage crops before they are ripe enough to harvest. In bird-friendly yards, however, fruit is a great choice for feeding birds because it does not leave as many hulls and wasted debris as most types of birdseed. Planting fruit trees, berry shrubs, and other plants that produce fruit is a great way to feed birds on a budget.
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