Time to start feeding the garden birds again. Remember to be meticulously clean with your feeding stations. You will hear it argued that feeding the birds is interfering with nature, especially as most of the food we provide would not be part of their natural diet, for example, peanuts and sultanas. Does it really matter, so long as it provides the essential food requirements?
During the spring, the female birds can use half of their energy to produce eggs, whilst the male defends his mate and territory.
In the summer, our hand-outs supplement the adult bird’s diet and allows them to feed the young with more of the natural food that they are foraging for. When breeding is over the adult birds are often in very poor condition and will moult at this time.
By the time Autumn arrives many of our summer visitors need to build up fat reserves that will see them through their migration.
The cold winter months mean that birds can find it difficult to find enough food to survive. Small birds, such as the blue tits and finches that visit our gardens, need to eat up to 40% of their body weight daily to survive.
The abundance of food at our feeding stations can encourage large numbers of birds. Consequently, there will be more sick birds and droppings and so the risk of spreading disease increases.
Some of the disease can be introduced in the food we buy for the birds, for example aflatoxin in peanuts, so it is important to buy safe foods from reputable suppliers.
Also, beware of dehydrated foods like desiccated coconut which are harmful, because the birds need to drink lots of water and the dried food will swell inside them which is often fatal.
The decision is yours, but overall most experts think that feeding the garden birds does more good than harm.
© 2006 – 2008, Alistair. All rights reserved.
