World’s insectivorous birds eat 400 to 500 million metric tons of beetles, flies, ants, moths, aphids, grasshoppers, crickets and other arthropods per year, according to a review of 103 previous studies. Only a few other predator groups such as spiders and entomophagous insects — including in particular predaceous ants — can keep up with the insectivorous birds in their capacity to suppress plant-eating insect populations on a global scale.