There are occasional open areas where there is grass and sunshine, and streams thread their ways down the mountains, providing microclimates for newts, frogs, and fishes. The primary consumers in this system include insects, birds, rodents and deer. There are many different kinds of insects, including caterpillars that eat the leaves and later turn into butterflies or moths. Rodents such as squirrels, wood mice, and ground squirrels eat plants and their seeds. Deer browse on the shrubs, grasses, and the leaves on the lower limbs of trees.
Birds eat seeds and berries, and many eat insects as well.
The woods ring with the sound of woodpeckers hammering trees in search of grubs. Bears are omnivores and eat anything organic that they can get. Contrast this with food webs in the tundra and the deserts. Notice that this biome produces 6000 Kilocalories of plant tissue per square meter per year. It is productive and supports many species of plants and animals, only a few of which have been mentioned here.