Perching Birds: Passeriformes

Passerines eat mostly seeds, fruits, nectar, insects, small birds, small lizards, and marine invertebrates (animals without a backbone). They have been known to also eat carrion (decaying animals), and even potato chips and other foods left out by humans. They eat often throughout the day and need a high-energy diet in order to supply their active lifestyle. Crossbills, diggers, and swallows have shapes for their bill, wing, and legs that are especially adapted for foraging. They forage (search for food) by many different methods including taking insects from the bark of trees, catching insects as they fly through the air, and very specialized methods for eating seeds. Most of the birds eat food as they find it, but some do store their food to eat later. Shrikes (sometimes called "butcherbirds") use an unusual way to store foods they catch. They spear insects, small birds, and lizards on thorns or barbed wire, so they can come back later to feed.