I recently had the good luck of finding an eye level nest of noisy mynas in Sydney in the park I live near. I have visited every day and watched them grow from teeny weeny to fat little tennis balls. I went back everyday dropping food on the ground for the family of mynas who were all looking after three chicks.(very noisy but got used to me and flew down to me feet for the food)
they grew so quickly and today they were trying to fly around haha....the family were guarding them.
the next story (too much time on my hands? no just lots of cancelling clients) the disabled pigeon. omg how my heart BROKE when I was feeding some birds and a pigeon flopped down at my feet head first. It had zero use of it's legs so manuvered itself around using it's head and wings but could not get to the food before the other birds... it could only sit flatly and watch, so i devised a plan to throw bread to the others and send them off in a frenzy then chuck some in front of her head so she can munch away undisturbed.
aww.
and now she is eating out of my hands a bit. She will live for sure and maybe her little legs will get better who knows :)
Hi sammy. Many people including me would warn against feeding wild birds because the advantage to the birds being fed causes an imbalance (often not noticed by people) in the local wildlife balance. Also the food used in most cases does not provide the right balance of vitimins and minerals for that particular bird. I can undertand you wanting to help the pidgeon however and although purists would argue that we should leave nature take it's course I doubt many people would turn their back on a sick/injured bird. Anyway welcome aboard and enjoy your time here and in the wide world of birding.
See Yez
Trev
Oh GOD here we go.
dont worry it's organic preservative free wholemeal bird bread. not chips like people let their toddlers feed the swans in centennial park.
these birds are not wild in the bush they are in the middle of a city and pigeons eat human food all their lives.
should I let it just die then should I?
why can't people learn to find the beauty in life instead of pointing out all the rules...
Oops Trev!!
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
tez
SammyGee
That's great you could help the pigeon. A bird's a bird and many birders tend to be rather snobbish about introduced species.
Trev's point is valid. While people have been feeding pigeons and similar urban species crap for centuries, you'd find that the Noisy Miner family group would most likely have reared young after young in that territory year after year. It's a nice and compassionate thing that you wanted to help but in all honesty the Noisy Miners would have been able to survive without it and most likely have or a long time. :) Either way, do a bit of research into why feeding native birds is not really a good thing and make up your own mind. :)
Cheerio...
Lmao.....That all went to the dogs pretty quickly.
:)
I wasn't going to respond but I decided that this forum is an appropriate place for the "to feed or not to feed " debate.it's all been said before I am sure but it is I think an issue that will always resurface from time to time.
Yes I have fed wildlife myself in the past although never for a sustained period of time. Yes other people in my household feed the birds in at my place and I am to date unabl;e to convince them that even occasionally is a bad idea. Yes I do have a chook pen and although it has a roof birds do get in. Yes the local double bar finches do get into the aviary and score a free feed quite often. So no i'm not perfect. Having said all that I still stand by what I said. All birds outside of cages are wild and if feral birds were not in the city more of the native species would be. All city birds whether fed by people intentionaly or scroungers, even the ibis, seagulls and kites at the local dump are eating inapropriate food and forming unnatural populations that compete for nesting and roosting sites with other wildlife.
See Yez
Trev
Oh and just for the record I would never walk past an injured or sick bird and do nothing. If you can help any animal that is suffering then you should. That doesn't mean it has to stay in the environment, most of us have pets of some kind and WIRES is only a phone call away for sick/injured wildlife.
See Yez
Trev
sorry
:(