What Do Purple Martins Eat?
Caleb Butler 
The Eating Habits of Purple Martins
Purple martins are well-loved songbirds in high demand as backyard birds, especially in the eastern United States. They are carnivores (insectivores). Like every other creature of nature, Martins are opportunistic feeders, taking whatever is the largest and most easily accessible at the moment. Purple martins only eat insects — not seeds, plants, worms, or even crops. Purple martins don’t eat seeds, sunflower seeds, or bird seeds. On the other hand, purple martins cane at eggs and eggshells.
Beetles, flies, butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers, crickets, moths, wasps, bees, cicadas, certain spiders, and termites are among the creatures they eat. However, newly published research indicates that the purple martin feeds on invading fire ants, which may constitute a significant percentage of their diet. Martins seem to like picking up small bits of gravel to help them digest insect exoskeletons. In this article, we will discuss what purple martins usually eat.
Insects
Purple martins mainly feed on insects, which they catch in flight or seize from the ground. Purple martins, eat fruit flies, dragonflies, wasps, cockroaches, ants, beetles, cicadas, and moths, which are preferred prey. In a single day, purple martins may consume 400 flies or 2000 mosquitoes.
Purple martins rarely eat spiders and prefer insects of all kinds. Their food consists of around 23% wasps and bees, 16% flies, 15% miscellaneous bugs such as stink bugs and black bugs, and 12% beetles. Purple martins eat butterflies, Japanese beetles, deer flies, fireflies, gnats, monarch butterflies, grasshoppers, carpenter bees, horse flies, maylfies, tucks, June bugs, yellow flies, honey bees, cicadas, moths, and dragonflies but prefer dragonflies.
Dragonfly
A martin’s preferred target is a dragonfly, which is a mosquito’s greatest fear. Because dragonflies eat on mosquito larva, the martins assisting the mosquito by destroying its predator. Young purple martins also prefer these small dragonflies over other insects.
What Purple Martins Do Not Eat
Martin purples are insectivores. As a result of this, purple martins don’t eat herbivorous diets such as plants, vegetables, leaves, or grasses. Also, purple martins don’t eat large animals or rodents. Their predators include hawks, snakes, raccoons, European starlings, house sparrows, owls, and cats.
