Could we have another forum about feeding birds? I am talking about getting the birds to the garden with bird-feeders and grains etc. We have one on gardening and birds. Why not another in which you can put forth your experiences with feeding them? I know I could not have as many birds in my yard where I live if it wasn't for feeding them. By the way if I am parroting someone else I'm sorry.
Hi 1wattlebird
The issue of feeding is a very controversial one. It can cause problems for some birds and so Birds in Backyards recommends that if you do feed birds, to do so infrequently and use appropriate foods. You can read about our position in our guidelines for urban bird habitat: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/documents/doc_16_guidelines_domestic_gardeners.pdf - there is also a larger document with references if you would like to see it too.
I absolutely recognise and agree that many people take great delight in feeding birds and develop a very close bond with wildlife in that way, but we think that creating a bird-friendly garden where birds can forage for food naturally is a better way to go.
Please still hang around the forums, we would love to hear about the birds you see.
Cheers
Holly
Yes I Know that people don't like the idea of feeding. I also knew that a feeding forum was never going to happen. It was just a thought to stop anyone from feeding a bird something that could be harmful. Though birds have iron guts, I gess that anything that us humans create could be harmful but I would not know.
I reckon you're right, 1wattlebird. To be on the safe side, I'm in favour of providing natural habitat rather than feeding birds stuff we humans think will attract them.
Also, I think it's important to ask the question: Whose interests are being served by hand feeding birds?
If you take a close look at my profile photo, everything is wrong. The Wattlebird is young. I am feeding her bread. I am also holding the bread so she peel bits off. But I love this photo and the bird doesn't come anymore, so I am sad. I should not be sad though. My philosophy is to feed birds that need it. I don't stick to it as much as I should. The Wattlebird in question was young and had a chick when she first came. So she was very brave. I don't think as a rule we, as humans, should just stand back and watch. The Wattlebird came in winter so there where little flowers about and she was one of the Wattlebirds that just didn't like bugs and grubs. Obviously Wattlebirds are not in trouble, but what about in the future when someone looks a photo of an endangered now but extinct then parrot or something and says "Why did not anyone do anything about it when it was still alive?". To answer your question, mine, I was happy when I was feeding that Wattlebird by hand but she just trying to survive.
I do agree with either side of this coin. i get pleasure seeing my frail nanas face when i feed her birds as she calls them. Curruwongs, magpies & wattlebirds every morning at her nursing home. (this is a positive thing) I also get pleasure seeing those same birds & more feeding naturally in native bushes & shrubs. ( this is also a positive.) Two positives do not make a negative in my eyes.
if your happy when your birding, flap your wings.
Yes it is a tricky one mrtattoo - and when we wrote our 'Guidelines' it was something we wrestled with. Advice from a researcher and expert in the field was to include some advice on how to feed properly (infrequently, better quality food etc) because, some people do take great pleasure from feeding birds and are unlikely to stop no matter what we say.
Currently I am feeding a Wattlebird that will fly up to my hand and take the food. But he is not my pet and do not want him to be. In the spring/summer he will come less because of the availability of food. I feel I am only here to help when the birds need it. And yes they don’t need as much food as they get from me. I also feel that, in suburbia, we have already interfered with nature by being here. By this I mean that with our cars, trucks and other noisy things that we humans do or make the birds deserve help now and then. Also with backyards, the plants that would have been in Australia before us are mostly not there for the natives, and with most of us originating from Europe this is helpful to the introduced birds. Your point of view is an intriguing one. My point of view is a torn one. On one side of the “coin” I feel sorry for the birds outside in the cold with myself inside in the warm, and feed them. On the other side, if I was to leave the area I worry that they (having grown up on my feeding) would starve. Could this be the negative mrtattoo?
I don't like to feed the native birds, however, I do toss out the kitchen scraps container to our local Sacred Ibis and the odd chicken bone to our resident Australian Raven. Outside of those two birds, no feeding, although very tempting, especially when the Rainbow Lorikeets call in, but manage restraint.
By the way I should have said, but I forgot, I don't make the wattlebird fly up to my hand. He did it one day and doesn't like walking close anymore so I let him fly up. Otherwise I don't like making them do tricks.
'on ya, Raven. If you have an impulse to feed, how about directing it into planting more of your local native vegetation? The local native bird life will be delighted!