By encouraging insectivorous birds to visit your property, you can establish a natural method of pest management. This approach moves beyond chemical controls, fostering an ecosystem where predatory birds handle nuisance insects like wasps and yellow jackets. Attracting these species requires providing them with the necessary habitat, specialized food, and a safe environment where they can successfully nest and forage. The goal is to create a vibrant, balanced yard ideal for raising young.
Understanding the Key Bird Species
Attracting birds that eat wasps means focusing on species with highly insect-dependent diets, especially during the breeding season. The Summer Tanager is famous for its diet of stinging insects. This species skillfully snatches adult wasps mid-air, then removes the stinger by wiping the insect against a branch before consumption. Eastern Kingbirds are also formidable aerial hunters, with insects like wasps and bees making up as much as 85% of their summer diet.
Other species target the larvae within the nest, offering a different form of control. Woodpeckers, such as the Northern Flicker, excavate ground or tree nests to access protein-rich pupae and larvae, particularly in late autumn when adult wasp populations decline. The Great Crested Flycatcher is another effective predator, regularly consuming bees and wasps caught in flight or gleaned from foliage. Baltimore and Orchard Orioles also switch to a diet of nearly 90% insects, including wasps, when feeding their young.
Creating Essential Shelter and Nesting Sites
Providing secure, species-specific places for birds to rest and nest is essential. Open-cup nesters like the Eastern Kingbird and Summer Tanager require dense, native trees and shrubs. Kingbirds prefer nests in open areas on trees or shrubs at least 6.5 feet above the ground, often near water or forest edges. Summer Tanagers favor the canopies of mature riparian trees (like oak, hickory, cottonwood, and willow), placing their shallow cup nests 10 to 35 feet up on horizontal branches.
For cavity-nesting species, such as the Great Crested Flycatcher, bird boxes are readily used, particularly those mounted on a pole near a woodland edge. The nest box should have a floor size of at least 6 by 6 inches and an entrance hole diameter of 1 and 3/4 inches, which helps deter larger competitors like European Starlings. Placing the box between 8 and 20 feet high on a metal pole, rather than a tree, offers better protection from climbing predators. Leaving dead trees, or snags, in place provides natural foraging sites and potential nesting cavities for woodpeckers.
Providing Supplemental Resources
Offering supplemental resources ensures birds stay in your yard during times of insect scarcity, even though the goal is for them to hunt wasps. Insectivorous species benefit from high-protein foods like live or dried mealworms, especially when feeding nestlings. Offer these in a simple dish or a specialized feeder designed to prevent access by wasps, which are attracted to sweet foods. Orioles appreciate high-quality suet or fruit like orange halves, which are best provided early in the season before the wasp population peaks.
Clean water is a powerful attractant for all birds, and moving water is especially appealing to insectivores. Traditional birdbaths are often too deep for small birds to bathe safely. A shallow basin with a water dripper or mister is preferable. The sound and movement of the water advertise its presence, and misters allow birds like the Summer Tanager to “leaf-bathe” by flying through the fine spray. The constant motion of the water also prevents mosquitoes from laying eggs.
Managing the Yard Ecosystem
Creating a healthy, pesticide-free ecosystem is crucial for attracting wasp-eating birds. The use of broad-spectrum insecticides and herbicides directly harms birds by eliminating their food source and exposing them to toxins. Eliminating chemical use allows a diverse insect population to flourish, supporting a healthy bird community.
Maintain a “messier” yard by leaving areas of leaf litter and small brush piles, which encourage ground-level insect activity. This habitat supports the entire food chain, providing foraging opportunities for ground-feeding birds and attracting insects that form the base of the food web. Active wasp nests that pose a direct risk to humans should be managed safely. Use non-chemical methods like a strong stream of water or wait until late fall when the colony is inactive. If the nest is out of the way, leaving it alone allows the natural predators you have attracted to manage the population organically.