As a group, sparrows are mostly seed eaters in the winter, because in the North where cold winters prevail fewer insects are available. They glean seeds from farmer's fields, crabgrass and other lawn weeds, and plants in abandoned lots, meadows and forests.
However, during the summer when insects are abundant, sparrows go after vegetable garden pests such as cabbage loopers, cucumber beetles, cutworms and leafhoppers for themselves and their young. Various sparrows also eat pests of landscape plants such as spruce budworms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, leafhoppers, true bugs, ants, wasps, spiders and crickets.
Insects Sparrows Control
| Lunch For Sparrows | |
|---|---|
| Ants | Cutworms |
| Asparagus beetles | Grasshoppers |
| Cucumber beetles | Leafhoppers |
| Japanese beetles | Spruce budworm pupae |
| Mexican bean beetles | True bugs |
| Other beetles | Caterpillars |
| Cabbage loopers | Wasps |
| Crickets | Spiders |
