Food For Thought

It’s that time of year again. I set off for the pet-shop and bought a bag of wild bird seed and a sack of Niger and then merrily filled the bird feeders. By coincidence a day or so ago a regular blog reader had asked, “What is your feeling about feeders?

There are definite pros and cons about feeding wild birds, so I decided to put my thoughts to the pen and paper of the keyboard and share the result in this post. 

Siskin

Feeding birds in the garden gives great pleasure but also a few things I worry about. The positives come later, but for now the not insurmountable worries in the order of 1) the potential for spreading disease via bird feeders, 2) the Sparrowhawk, and 3) marauding cats. 

The suspicion that feeding wild birds heightens the spread of disease among them is one of the strongest anti-feeding arguments. 

Although it’s true that making birds to feed together at common places can lead to increased disease transfer, it is also well known that birds often feed in groups, including mixed-species flocks like finches, thrushes and doves/pigeons. Good feeder hygiene by way of cleaning feeders regularly, offering fresh seed, minimizing faeces build-up, and generally striving for quality versus quantity of desired visitors can lessen this problem. 

I don’t feed peanuts, mostly because in my experience they go soggy and then mouldy very quickly - not a good thing to feed to birds. Not offering peanuts means that I don’t see too many Great-spotted Woodpeckers or Greenfinches, but in my defence there are claims that peanut feeding is responsible for the increase in the populations of the Grey Squirrel. This introduced pest species is known to be a predator of birds’ eggs and nestlings as well as out-competing our native Red Squirrel, not to mention its habit of destroying bird feeders. 

Grey Squirrel

The number of bird feeders is surely in the millions across the UK. In some urban and suburban roads it seems as if most people have a feeder or two. However, a closer look often reveals feeders in a state of disrepair and not recently replenished. Bird feeding has its devotees, but not all of them are passionate or knowledgeable about the rules. It is important to remember that if birds become accustomed to feeding at a particular site, the feed should be maintained and if there is a desire or need to stop feeding, it should be done gradually over days or weeks to allow birds to find an alternative. 

Lesser Redpoll

In the UK the Sparrowhawk is a frequent visitor to gardens with bird feeders. It is said that raptors usually capture the weaker or less fit birds, but whether they kill birds at a feeder or at some other location out of our sight we should remind ourselves that it is all part of nature, “red in tooth and claw”, as the saying goes. 

At times I see a Sparrowhawk hiding among shrubs and trees or sitting motionless on a partly hidden fence so as to suddenly dash into a group of birds around a feeder: it’s one of their most and successful natural hunting techniques. Many is the time I glimpse a Sparrowhawk dashing though the garden as it scatters the feeding birds but fails to catch anything. The moment of drama is one to enjoy, nothing is harmed, and while all goes quiet and the feeding birds disappear for a while, it is amazing how quickly they return. After all, birds live with the threat of being eaten by a predator every day of their lives and are finely tuned to spot them. And even a Sparrowhawk lives in fear of its larger cousin the Goshawk.

Sparrowhawk

It’s estimated that roaming pet cats kill billions birds and animals annually in the world. A recent book, Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer Cat Wars:The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer examines the severe ecological damage caused by feral cats and outdoor pet cats. 

Fortunately I don’t have a problem with too many neighbourhood cats but in any case my feeders are out of reach and away from vegetation where cats can hide to ambush birds. Below a couple of my feeders are seed trays to prevent seed from falling to the ground and to minimise the numbers of vulnerable ground-feeding birds. If I see a cat in the garden I always shoo it away, just in case it is an experienced bird killer.

Domestic Cat

Do birds actually need the food on offer in my feeders or am I diverting them away from feeding in a more natural way? I do know that the numbers in my garden go up and down with the seasons and even the time of day. There are definitely more birds in the winter and early spring when they appear to use the garden as a snack bar in times of food shortages, especially during cold spells and the worst times of natural food shortages. A garden is just one of many feeding sites that birds use in the course of a single day, week or even months. For example, the garden has been bereft of Goldfinches for weeks but now as natural autumnal seed heads begin to disappear I am seeing Goldfinches returning to the Niger feeders. A number of them are returnees as I discover if I catch a sample for ringing. 

Goldfinch

Goldfinches

The “Hunger Gap” for UK and Northern Hemisphere birds is reckoned to be between January and March/April when winter is at its most severe and when both insect and seed items are in short supply. I have windfall apples stored in the freezer in readiness for the snow and ice which might appear in late December and into the New Year and more often than not the apples attract in members of the thrush family, mostly extra Blackbirds, but also Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush and even small numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare. 

Song Thrush

Blackbird

Scientific studies have shown nutritional and reproductive benefits to species like Blackbirds, Robins and the tit family that breed in localities with plenty of garden feeders. Whether to feed birds all the year round is a subject open to some debate but I think the consensus is that it is OK so long as the correct food is on offer whereby the birds are clever enough to supplement their natural diet with other “goodies” without relying on too much unnatural food. 

One of the major positives from bird feeding is that it is useful to the conservation of birds. In the past twenty years or so, and through organisation like the BTO and the RSPB, and participation in surveys like Big Garden Birdwatch, Garden Birdwatch and the Nest Record Scheme, UK Citizen Science has become a major tool used by conservationists to help bird populations.

Robin

The results from such work allow scientists to acquire snapshots of how bird populations fare from year to year, as well as detecting long-term trends. This information becomes particularly critical in the face of climatic and habitat changes. 

There it is then - lots of positives about feeding birds in the garden and very few reasons to think that doing so might cause harm.