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Can or do birds like skins? E.G banana, potato (1 Viewer)

wildlifelove

Hopefully Birding...
Hi All

Only me!!

I was wondering if birds would like left over skins of banana, potatoes, apple, orange, carrot. As alot of them get thrown away! So was thinking maybe i could put them out for my birds!???

Any thoughts???????
 
... compost them? ;)

If you think about it, skins of fruit/veg tend to not be nutritionally great, they are more designed for keeping the contents in. Birds need good quality food too (especially in weather conditions like at present).

(Often toxic/distasteful compounds are concentrated in the skins precisely to avoid hungry animals (whether insect, mammal or bird) eating into them ... )
 
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I don't think they'll touch it, and I'm not too sure if they'll be good for them. Many fruits such as oranges tends to be coated with wax(so that they look nicer in supermarkets) and chemicals can be used in farms.
 
The only thing I've ever heard that will eat anything like that is starlings. I've heard they'll eat potato skin, although I've not tried it, because I don't want to place a welcome mat out for them.
 
I compost my garden prunings and suitable kitchen waste. Birds love it when I forget to shut the lids they hop in there to find the insects and other invertebrates, and they love the annual compost the veg veg patch day when I spread it. In return they eat eat the cattepillars and aphids that get on my veg.
 
I compost my garden prunings and suitable kitchen waste. Birds love it when I forget to shut the lids they hop in there to find the insects and other invertebrates, and they love the annual compost the veg veg patch day when I spread it. In return they eat eat the cattepillars and aphids that get on my veg.

Sounds a good idea! i put out my old skins ect then lots of insects come then the birds get some lovely fresh live insects!!!
 
There's a diference between composting and just leaving them out. just leaving them out will attract insect and birds that feed on insects but at this time of year there are very few active insects so you just end with a smelly pile of slime. Composting works because the heat of the decomposition keeps the microbial and invertebrate life warm and needs to be done in a large mass or in a contained envionment like a compost bin.
 
I seriously doubt that birds will show much interest in such fodder. You are better off composting this stuff to help keep your bird friendly garden plants healthy and happy!
 
Regarding bananas I read this on the RSPB website other day.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/266048-birds-go-bananas-in-the-cold-weather

But the wildlife charity now has proof that some birds like bananas too, with a variety of birds on one of its nature reserves scoffing down bunches at a time courtesy of a local supermarket.
Birds like moorhens, ducks and skylarks at Saltholme, the wildlife reserve and discovery park run by the RSPB, have been enjoying leftover bananas donated to the RSPB by a Tesco store in nearby Stockton-on-Tees.
Val Osborne, Head of Wildlife Enquiries, says: 'Although bananas aren't one of the traditional fruits fed to birds, they probably hit the spot quickly and help birds warm up soon after eating them.
 
I chuck all vegetable and fruit peelings in a pile of dead leaves at the back of the garden.
In a few months I hope to have some rich compost that I can spread over my flower beds and stuff.
 
seen some kiddies throw a bannana skin into joes pond,at rainton,and the swans seemed to be eating the white insides of the skins.
 
Most fruit skins are primarily cellulose, which neither we nor most birds (except hoatzins) can digest.
Putting it out in winter is like putting out diet soda and celery stalks for a starving person.
Birds currently need fuel to stay warm, the richer the better. So please put out suet, sunflower seeds and peanut hearts right now. Take care of their vitamins with fruits and berries once the cold is behind us.
 
I don't know about the skins, but the blackbirds in my garden love bananas. We often seem to buy them quicker than we eat them and consequently often have over-ripe bananas (which I hate). I put these out (minus the skins) and they are soon devoured by the blackbirds and Starlings.
 
I don't know about the skins, but the blackbirds in my garden love bananas. We often seem to buy them quicker than we eat them and consequently often have over-ripe bananas (which I hate). I put these out (minus the skins) and they are soon devoured by the blackbirds and Starlings.

Visiting orioles and resident tanagers and robins will eat bananas off the plants here; but I haven't seen them eat the skins.

Helen
 
had some bananas which had been left out in the conservetory overnight and they were rock solid when i took them out and when they defrosted they turned into a sloppy mess, i put them out at my local patch and the coots were all over them in seconds, then the mallards and gulls, and i could see the swans, canada geese, wigoen and teal moving closer to investigate too.
 
On the subject of banana skins I used to have a Border Collie that would eat pretty much anything - however revolting it looked to the human eye - but even he wouldn't touch banana skins.
 
My In-laws used to have a golden retriever that would eat literally anything, including whole bananas skin and all. Some other fodder on that list included, but is not limited to: napkins, tissue, socks, whole rolls of toilet paper, rags, goose poop, and the list goes on.

So, I'm sure there is some things out there that are a few cards short of a deck that would eat banana peels.
 
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