What animals eat flowers

Plants provide birds with a place to shelter from wind and predators, building material and a place to build nests, and a source of food – green parts, seeds, fruits and pests feeding on plants.

Flower eating animals

Birds in the vast majority of cases play a useful role in the garden. They devour pests, preventing their gradation and thus destroying the greenery. The great tit in certain periods of its life can eat as many insects as it weighs in a day. A family of such birds devours up to several million pests during the summer. Another good example is the swift. Its daily diet can consist of 20,000. insects. Mosquitoes make up the vast majority of this group. Larger species – e.g. owls – are invaluable help in the fight against mice and voles. Birds in the garden also make the time more pleasant with their singing and appearance.

Plant matter – plant as a house

The garden can be not only a place for birds to visit, but also their home. To make this happen, it is worth installing nesting boxes and planting plants that are a natural shelter. Dense trees and bushes are good “objects” for nesting. This group includes, among others: boxwood, thuja, birch, hornbeam, beech, yew, fir, spruce and linden. An important species used in forests to increase species diversity is common juniper. This “practice” can also be successfully transferred to the garden. The coniferous shrub is a great nesting place for songbirds. Unfortunately, the problem is cutting and forming plants for hedges. In this way, you can not only scare away the animals, but also accidentally destroy the nests. It is difficult to give up cutting plants, but the treatments should be done carefully.

Favorite flowers

A huge number of species are grown in the parks, which are food for birds. This cooperation is not always beneficial (e.g. starlings feeding on cherries are a real problem). Usually, however, animals do not cause damage to plants and, by the way, eliminate insects and snails. One of the most valuable, but rarely cultivated species in the garden is blackthorn plum. It provides shelter and food for about 20 species of birds (of course, not all of them live near human settlements). The yew plays an important role – providing food for 24 species (including robin and nuthatch). On the other hand, bird cherry drupes are a valuable food, e.g. for greenfinches. Privet is liked by thrushes, waxwings, bullfinches and robins. Other “desirable” species are: elderberry, wild rose, hawthorn, dogwood, sea buckthorn, spindle and chokeberry.

Friendly garden for most birds

The vast majority of birds most willingly visit and inhabit places located far from urban agglomerations. This is an obvious fact. However, in the patio itself, you can make modifications that will be an additional lure for animals. First of all, the patio should be as natural as possible. Nooks decorated in a country, English, forest and naturalistic style are welcome. There should be plenty of trees and shrubs in the garden. This will attract not only birds, but also other animals (e.g. squirrels). However, you cannot overdo it – creating dense thickets can worsen the appearance of the park. It is worth “installing” water sources. It can be a pond, a stream or simply a well-filled drinking bowl placed in a quiet place.

Flower beds in winter season

Do you want to watch birds through the window in autumn and winter? The feeder is not enough. At this time, the fruits of wild or ornamental trees and shrubs play an important role in the bird’s menu. For humans, these plants usually have only a decorative value, sometimes we do not even notice them, while birds use their fruits, which are valuable food. In addition to the fact that birds are a kind of decoration in the winter park, they are also our natural allies. When they arrive, lured by berry that is appetizing for them, they will also look through the bark of trees and shrubs, removing pests from them!

Barberry

This very common shrub, used mainly for hedges and hedges, grows up to 2 m high, becoming extremely desirable by animals in winter. Many birds love its berry. The thorny twigs of barberries are also a great shelter, e.g. from cats, for small species of birds.

Irga

It works exceptionally well as a ground cover plant. Horizontally growing twigs reach 1 m in length. The small, round leaves are glossy and dark green, turning orange in autumn. Shrubs growing in full sun will bloom profusely and bear fruit. White flowers appear on the bushes in June, and red balls – berries decorate the herb until they are eaten by feathered creatures.

Juniper

Juniper is universally applicable in the arrangement of the park, giving it naturalness and wildness. It can grow where other plants can’t – in full sun, on dry, barren, sandy soil. Its berries are called cones, they contain flavanoids and organic acids, they are food for many species of feathered creatures.

Which animals eat flowers

Herbivores are an extremely extensive group. In nature, they come in all sizes and shapes. The smallest representatives of herbivores are difficult to notice. Herbivorous animals, or phytophages, are the first level of consumers in every ecosystem. The very concept of herbivory refers to a way of eating that provides for the intake of herb food. Most herbivores eat without killing the plants, but some species, like carnivorous predators, kill the source of their food when they eat.

Herbivores division

According to the food they eat, herbivores can be divided into: phyllophagi – adapted to eat green parts of plants, especially leaves, cambiophages – adapted to feed on cambium, i.e. secondary creative tissue, melitophages – adapted to feed on pollen, xylophagous – adapted to feed on wood. Unlike omnivores, herbivores eat only plant foods.

Flower eating animals

There are many animals that eat flowers. One of the herbivores is the tallest animal in the world. Majestic giraffe inhabits the African savannah, stretching south of the Sahara. It leads a gregarious lifestyle and feeds on leaves and tree buds. The long neck allows not only the acquisition of food. It also allows you to observe the surroundings, which, combined with excellent eyesight and hearing, provides giraffes with a lot of safety. Sizes are also important. Only the African lion is able to knock down an adult giraffe, but it should be noted that such cases are rare.

The next big herbivore on our list is the Indian elephant. An adult male can reach up to 2.7 m at the withers and a weight of about 2.7 t. Indian elephants go foraging at dawn or after sunset. They eat as much as 150 kg of plant food a day, mainly grasses, mallows, legumes, palms and sedges. With the arrival of the dry season, bark appears on the menu of this colossus.

Another animal that eats only animals ic koala. Koala is an animal with an exceptionally gentle disposition, which spends most of its life in the crowns of eucalyptus trees. Nature has equipped koala with a digestive system capable of processing only certain species of mature eucalyptus leaves. This means that their diet is limited to only one plant throughout their lives.

Mentioned examples of animals that eat flowers does not close the list of flower eaters. There are many tiny animals that eat flowers. Some of them can be harmful to the plants so gardeners need to get rid of them.

Gardener’s blacklist insects

Some animals that are flower eaters are not welcomed in gardens. One of them are japanese beetles. That insects ruin the leaves by eating away the tissue between the veins, leaving only the veins. Damaged leaves may turn brown and fall off. They also eat flower petals and fruit in irregular, large feedings. They usually feed in groups, attacking the plant from the top, and moving downwards as they eat it. Substances secreted by damaged plants lure other japanese beetles to the feeding site.

Another insect eating flowers can be caterpillars called the boxwood moth is an invasive species of butterfly whose caterpillars devour boxwood leaves en masse, causing the entire plants to be stripped, and as a result, to die and wither. The feeding symptoms of the boxwood moth are the gnawed edges of the leaves, and then the whole boxwood leaves.