10 Birds that Love Eating Mealworms (With Photos)

Mealworms are an often overlooked superfood for bird feeding. If you haven’t added any to your feeding station, it’s worth experimenting with. A lot of birds primarily eat insects or include them in their diet. Adding mealworms to your feeders is an easy way to draw in more species.

I’ve been feeding the birds for years and find that they really like the addition of mealworms in the spring. I usually like to mix some in with bird seed in a tray feeder (pictured below), or buy live mealworms from my local Wild Bird Store.

For me, dried mealworms quickly become favorites for Chickadees and Nuthatches at my feeding station.

A Chipping Sparrow at a tray bird feeder full of white millet and mealworms. — I mixed mealworms with millet in the spring for the birds. Pictured here is a curious Chipping Sparrow.

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What Are Mealworms?

Mealworms are the larva of mealworm beetles. They’re a good source of protein and calcium, which is especially important for birds during the spring mating season. (Cornell Bird Lab). You can feed bids mealworms from a tray, hopper or specialized mealworm bird feeder.

You can either buy live mealworms from a local bird store near you, or you can buy dried mealworms at any bird store or from Amazon. For convenience sake, I usually order a pouch of Kaytee mealworms.

A bag of Kaytee dried mealworms that are available for sale on Amazon. Mealworms are great food for a ton of birds. — Click the link above or the picture to buy mealworms straight from Amazon. I usually do this for convenience.

I also experiment with buying fresh mealworms on occasion. These are more expensive but are like caviar for birds, they’re gone within a few hours at my feeders!

Mealworms are also often incorporated into bird feeder cylinders. Bird seed cylinders last a long time and appeal to a ton of different species ranging from Woodpeckers to Cardinals.