I’ve filled my feeders with nuts and seeds as a kid and have always enjoyed seeing the birds that arrive. I’m not the only one; about 50% of UK households have the same habit today and spend around PS250million on bird feed every year. This is enough to feed three times more breeding population of the ten most popular garden species if they consumed the same food throughout the year and only one bird feeder per every nine birds who make use of the feeders.
Have you ever considered how the extra food could be impacting wild birds? How much has our generosity moved their diets, and what bird species don’t we observe at gardens’ feeders?
If you’re in the UK, One garden visitor you’re likely to see is the blue tit. Blue tits are tiny, swift and typically feed high in trees, eating small insects. Finding out exactly what they eat is difficult. But thanks to modern molecular techniques we h, ave been capable of testing blue tit poo collected from 39 woods throughout Scotland. Some of them are close to homes, some along mountain slopes, and some near the sea. This gave us an intriguing glimpse into their diet.
The results that I and my colleagues discovered surprised us. A tiny moth caterpillar that feeds on the birch tree was their most popular natural prey, which was present in about one-third of the poos that we tested. In addition to the many species of insects that prey on us, we also discovered foods for birds that are found in the garden as well – and plenty of it.
Peanuts were in half of the waste – which is the most popular food item eaten by Scottish bluetits. There were also sunflower seeds were found in the fifth. They weren’t just wandering around the next house to look for the garden delights. They were traveling as far as 1.4km from far-off areas to enjoy their favorite garden snacks. This is an integral part of their diet.
A blue tit bonanza
The food we feed our animals provides blue tits with greater power for laying eggs five days ahead of blue tits who do not. The earlier breeders are more likely to produce healthier chicks. Consuming bird food was associated with the almost fourfold growth in the number of adult birds that can breed in a particular region. While there was only one blue tit nesting, the presence of garden bird feeders in the vicinity meant it was now likely that there would have four pairs of birds sharing the same space.
Other woodland species like fantastic Tits, nuthatches, and great woodpeckers with spotted spots that love eating garden bird food are doing extremely well, too. Their UK population has grown by an average of the past 25 years, and the feeding of birds has been gaining momentum..
This feeding practice could be providing these animals with an advantage. They have natural competition in the forest that aren’t feeding birds more or less or at all, due to their shyness or they’re being victimized by species that are dominant or because they aren’t fond of the food that people offer. They include marsh tit, willow-tit along with pied flycatcher, wood warbler and lesser-spotted woodpecker. The situation they face is, unfortunately, not good news.
Lesser spotted woodpecker population is decreasing within the UK. Risto Puranen/Shutterstock
How can we help all birds of the woods
The number of woodland birds that don’t rely on feeders in the garden have decreased in the last 25 years, with some reaching the point of virtually disappearing from UK country. It is unclear why this happened the decline, which could be due to habitats being destroyed and climate change, feeding birds in the garden could also have played an important role.
Because of people feeding them, there are now greater numbers of great and dominant tits in the woods than they did 25 years ago, and they are taking in more of the natural food available and forcing different kinds of birds of birds from nests. Also, there are more magnificent seen woodpeckers and squirrels that eat chicks of certain birds. Maybe 700,000 pairs of extremely robust and healthy excellent tits in woodlands is enough for the UK’s remaining 220 pairs of subordinate and shy willow tits.
