Maggots and wild birds (1 Viewer)

[Johnnie boy]

While I’m no expert on our garden birds eating live maggots one thing I have noticed while feeding live mealworms is that they usually kill them before they eat them.
This maybe applied to feeding maggots as well as I’m sure that if eaten alive the maggots will continue to feed on its host from the inside out.
Any views on that from those of you more informed than me.
The reason for this posting is that we have a blackbirds nest with 3 five day old chicks , today the female has gone missing and the male has been feeding them all day on mealworm, garden worms etc.
my concern is 1 will they survive the night without her brooding them and 2 will he be able to provide enough normal food to sustain them.

 

[Lisa W]

Hi, Johnnie boy and welcome to the forum on behalf of the staff and moderators. I’m sorry but I can’t help with your question. Hopefully someone from your side of the pond will be along to answer.

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum. I hope you enjoy your visits.

 

[KC Foggin]

Welcome aboard Johnnie and enjoy your time with us.
I'm certainly no expert but I have watched some birds do the same in killing an insect before eating. I don't know why it hadn't dawned on me as to why until I read your post so thank you for that

 

[delia todd]

Hi Johnnie and a warm welcome from me too. I don't think the live maggots would actually injure the birds directly, but they may eat the food that's in the stomach. I've not really had a chance to observe this behaviour, as I only have feed dried mealworms.

A major cause of nest failure is the loss of one of the adults unfortunately. You could assist the male by leaving some mealworms out for him (but not too close to the nest as it may cause stress if other birds are attracted to that area).

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I hope to hear about all the birds you see when out and about.

 

[Chris G6 UXU]

Hello and welcome to the forum, enjoy and all the best.

 

[Fritz73]

Hola! Welcome to Birdforum

 

[Rufus1401]

Greetings from Wales. What an excellent question. Something for me to scour the internet for answers today.

 

[Mike Crawley]

I’m no expert but….
In my humble opinion the high concentration of gastric acid (is it hydrogen chloride or am I misremembering) would be sufficient to kill the maggot before it could adversely impact the health of the bird.

 

[Andy Lakin]

Possibly the blackbirds identify the mealworms as a strange foodstuff and are being extra cautious. Apparently the beetles that produce the larvae are only found patchily across the U.K so birds may have not come across them.in the wild before.

There is no way maggots will affect the insides of birds. Never heard of anglers expressing any concerns with fish and obviously they use tons of the things. From what I've read I would think that the maggots have finished feeding by the time they are sold in a shop.

If you are able to (if you haven't already) have a look at making a wormery. As you have said earthworms are a big help at breeding times in particular. It might take a bit of trial and error but once you get the conditions right they will breed like mad. There are some great YouTube videos available. Also with worms at different stages of growing the adults will consume the bigger ones and feed the young the smaller examples

 

[MikeInPA]

I would hope that the coloring dyes used for fishing maggots are not harmful to birds.

 

[Andy Lakin]

I would hope that the coloring dyes used for fishing maggots are not harmful to birds.

Easy enough to get natural.i.e whitish coloured maggots. There are also smaller versions with pinkies and squats being the smallest.

 

[MikeInPA]

Easy enough to get natural.i.e whitish coloured maggots. There are also smaller versions with pinkies and squats being the smallest.

Yep. Understood, I was never into match fishing so regular fat juicy maggots were all I used. I never thought about feeding them to the birds though.

 

[Torchepot]

I raised a young blackbird that was rescued from our neighbours cat when I was a kid. At one point I tried feeding it maggots from the fishing tackle shop, it gobbled them up OK but I was horrified when I realised that they passed right through it still alive and wriggling! Went back to digging out worms from the compost heap after that.

 

[dantheman]

I raised a young blackbird that was rescued from our neighbours cat when I was a kid. At one point I tried feeding it maggots from the fishing tackle shop, it gobbled them up OK but I was horrified when I realised that they passed right through it still alive and wriggling! Went back to digging out worms from the compost heap after that.

That does sound a bit horrific.

A quick google indicates fishing maggots (bluebottle fly larvae) are produced on maggot farms, where they are fed on hanging meat. So they are perhaps thick-skinned and protected in other ways when in eg rotting meat which perhaps confers protection inside a digestive tract.

There must be vast numbers crawling around fishing places at times (eg tubs knocked over/let go) - whether these are consumed by local birds or crawl away don't know.

(Mealworms feed on bran/similar, so rather different).