Never seen a bird eat one. When I throw them, the paper wasps take them apart and then away in about 10 minutes. Last year, I had nesting robins just above my tomatoes and they rejected all the hornworms I threw near them. They took earthworms I threw, but not hornworms.

Maybe mockingbirds. They'll eat anything.

Ted

Hi, Last year I had zero hornworms do to the fact that the birds ate them all. mocking birds robins cat -birds and wrens were the main visitors a saw a chickadee (seed eater) land on the plants once, I don't know if he ate any of the horn worms though.

Mine were always the Brown Thrasher that did the good deed.

Knock on wood, but I have never had a tomato hornworm in my garden. Either that or something ate them before they did damage.

Never seen a bird eat one, but I know whatever the type of wasp is that uses them as a host for it's eggs pretty well keeps them in check in my area. They may munch around on a few plants, but in fairly short order they start to draw in the parasitic wasps and are all but wiped out. I know my mom never did anything with them other than puling off the odd uninfected horn worm while she was picking her tomatoes. This probably varies greatly from region to region though.

Crows - we have lots of them and the bluebirds (Eastern ones here) love them too.

Dave

Good to hear about the catbirds -- this is the first time I've seen them near my garden. I've never had hornworm problems, but I always welcome pest-eaters. :)

I cannot say for sure, but it sure looks like the red cardinals are picking / looking for worms on the plants.

I only get to see the cardinals for a short time so I do not get close, but one is making the garden out back a frequent stop.

I am pretty sure that cowbirds will eat them. I saw the cowbirds picking at my birdnet that covers my tomatoes in Arizona, and so when I went out to see, I could see they were after these giant green tomato worms. I picked 4 of them off, and they were HUGE. They seem to start at the top of your tomatoe plant and work downward, and yes, I noticed that they eat the green tomatoes. The birds will eat the red ones, so I just took off my nets, picked anything with even a tinge of red color tomato, and then hopefully the birds will have at it. Are these the same as cutworms? Leafcutter bees will eat up your rose bushes too. It is hard to stay organic. Is there any organic way to get rid of these worms? For cutworms I used Bayer Grub Control and Turf Fertilizer, in my flower plants worked into the dirt outfront, and that took care of those cutworms, but I don't know if these greeen horn tomato worms are considered the same thing, since they seem to start up at the top of the plant, eating everything in sight. I would be interested in a more organic solution to getting rid of these green tomato worms.

Try corn meal on and around the infected plant. Hornworms eat the corn meal which it can not digest, as a result, burst. This is an effective solution I use as a organic landscape contractor in the Los Angeles area.

Had a male cardinal hopping in my tomato plant like crazy so I went to check what was up and found a large tomato worm hanging off a top branch. It was hanging on so tight I had a tough time removing it. Was surprised a cardinal was trying to get it.

I didn't think that birds liked them at all.

The year that I had them, I collected them and tossed them in the pond but the fish wouldn't eat them.

My friend had them and offered them to her chickens, but they refused them. Ugh!

Linda

I bet those big white ducks would eat them also, they eat anything. I used to feed our ducks those great big banana slugs. They fought over them.

If the tomato hornworms are caught before they're to huge, I feed them to the lizards which really love them. Just put them on a plate or on a brick and out of nowhere along comes hungry IPM lizard from the crew just like the chicken in the vid. I guess that doesn't qualify as birds, but the lizards strangely looks like a bird when eating them. I think the ducks are a good bet too.

Since birds are in short supply when you need them and lizards aren't around in the morning when I try to work, the only dependable things that will make them disappear are the red ants. Drop one on their anthill and they swarm and bite it everywhere at once and the internal fluids bead on the outside of the caterpillar's skin until it is paralyzed, and turns whitish as it is stung and sucked dry, and then the carcass is dragged and disappears down the anthill. A pretty ferocious thing to do but as I look at the stripped damage on the mater plants and fruits there isn't much charity towards these caterpillar beasts...

Cheers

PC

I pulled a hornworm off my tomato plant today and put it out for my favorite robin. He ate it immediately and was looking for more. As I was also wondering what birds ate these too, I am happy to know that the robins do. Maybe a cardinal would too.

I think many birds will gladly eat them while they're smallish. Once they get large, it's probably only the more dedicated insectivores that will go for them.

Like cardinals. Here's video of a cardinal eating a similar sized caterpillar that could be a hornworm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktWIEnqKK34 (Warning: the video is a little gross, as the bird really mangles the caterpillar).

I haven't personally seen cardinals in the act of eating a hornworm, but something must be doing so because I only find about 2 a year, but I see the moths in my yard. And cardinals do like to nest in my neighbor's hawthorn bush and use my garden as an insect larder.

GB .... exactly. The Mockingbirds and Cardinals eat them here when they're small. I can pick them and throw them to the Mockingbirds. Eastern Blue Birds will pick at them. Box turtles will eat them. When they're big, they get the boot squish. I haven't seen any horn worms yet this year. The moths are fascinating. Almost like a bird. I have caught them and showed them to my DH.

I just watched a female Cardinal pick and pull at a tomato hornworm on my Brugmansia (Angel Trumpet plant) until she finally got it loose and flew off with it.

Found one of these nasties on my tomato plant a BIG ONE and looked up this thread. So i tossed him in my bird feeder and about 30min later was rewarded with seeing a big Blue Jay carry him off!

That is GREAT! We found some large hornworms on a Sungold tomato plant at my friend's house, handpicked a whole pile of them to give to the chickens, but the chickens wouldn't eat them!!!!!!

Linda

I noticed when looking for the hornedworm I'd find one beat up, black n blue barely hanging on. I recently placed a hummingbirds feeder right next to my plants. I have 0 worms now.

Sparrows!! Yesterday I saw two sparrows tag teaming picking at this poor leafin my pepper plant…. that’s what i thought until i saw something drip.

I went out there and it was a huge hornworm! I got gloves and pulled it iff the plant and left it in the ground and they took it after some fighting with it!!

They came back and did the same in my bell pepper plant…. so i went out and we repeated our removal process.

Had the bird feeder for a few months, the finches are cool but not hunters….these sparrows are welcome back to my patio garden ANY time!!

Wish i took a video or pic. Next time.

These guys completely ravaged (but thankfully didn't destroy) the four tomato plants we're growing. I froze them and plan to have my kids feed geese with them...hoping the birds like em!

^^^^^

We did NOT feed them to any birds thankfully!!

**** https://opensanctuary.org/things-that-are-toxic-to-geese/ ****

I feed them to my chickens. They love em! I usually have lots on my tomato plants but surprisingly barely any this year.