Should I feed Birds bread? (1 Viewer)

Andy Ledger said:

The RSPB say this...

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/advice/foodfitforbirds/bread.asp

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I note that this site states "a chick fed on a diet of bread may not develop into
a healthy fledgling"

I am sure that parent birds, well Blue Tits at least actualy vary the diet of their chicks.
I have noticed that when I put out meal worms the parents will start feeding them to their chicks immediately. However, even though the mealworm feeder is not empty they will stop and start feeding Sunflower seeds instead then after a while start hunting for insects etc in the trees and hedges close to the nestbox.

Anyone else noticed this?

If you put out bread for the birds they will probably take some back to thier chicks but not at the expense of all other food types.

If you get a cold/wet spring and there is a lack of insect life to feed to the chicks then they would have to feed them on the food that is available. If it is only bread then I think this is better than the chicks starving as they would do in the wild.

Duckling are of course a differrent matter as they feed themselves.

It may be possible that ducks and birds in towns may have built up an immunity to bread over the decades that we have been feeding them.
Brett.

Hundreds of old ladies in San Francisco feed pigeons tons of bread a day. If bread is harmful to birds, why is the City spending millions to control the pigeons?

Hi - I think the RSPB's short notice has the best info. Too much bread is bad for developing ducklings - the nutritional profile of bread doesn't allow them to grow correctly formed wings. A previous message in this thread mentioned Canada Geese whose young developed misshapen wings. I've seen this myself in raising ducks and adopting other's misfed ducklings. A diet of cat food - high protein so it's not just the protein level, probably the balance of certain vitamins and/or minerals required for good bone development - can cause the same problem.

It is likely that we don't see the poorly developed ducklings that have been fed bread in city parks because they either get picked off by predators at an early age or get a varied enough diet from foraging to develop strong wings. You can't really see that the wings have developed wrong until they fledge - and they are easy pickings before that. The poorly developed wings sort of droop down - they look broken, and it can happen on only one side. Since there doesn't seem to be a low duck population problem in any of the city parks I've ever visited, kids and other people feeding ducks bread in city parks is not such a big problem - the illformed ducklings provide feed for herons, raptors, raccoons, carp & goldfish, etc. There are some parks that sell packets of pelleted food in an effort to provide better nutrition for their resident ducks.

Feeding bread to pigeons might be less of a problem because 1) they are usually fledged by the time they feed heavily on bread, 2) pigeon metabolism and nutritional needs might be different than ducklings. Barbara

nobby said:

I note that this site states "a chick fed on a diet of bread may not develop into
a healthy fledgling"

I am sure that parent birds, well Blue Tits at least actualy vary the diet of their chicks.
I have noticed that when I put out meal worms the parents will start feeding them to their chicks immediately. However, even though the mealworm feeder is not empty they will stop and start feeding Sunflower seeds instead then after a while start hunting for insects etc in the trees and hedges close to the nestbox.

Anyone else noticed this?

...
Brett.

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I think tits, like other birds, feed their young softer food (mainly larvae) when the chicks are young; only later can the chiock take hard food such as seeds. If there is a failure of larvae, there is a subsequent failure of broods. It could be that the parent will not feed the wrong food item, even if it leads to starvation.

That said, I have read that young birds have been found choked on whole peanuts - and since I read that, I crush those that are not in the mesh feeder.

BarbaraM said:

Hi - I think the RSPB's short notice has the best info. Too much bread is bad for developing ducklings - the nutritional profile of bread doesn't allow them to grow correctly formed wings. A previous message in this thread mentioned Canada Geese whose young developed misshapen wings. I've seen this myself in raising ducks and adopting other's misfed ducklings. A diet of cat food - high protein so it's not just the protein level, probably the balance of certain vitamins and/or minerals required for good bone development - can cause the same problem.

... Barbara

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It's good to read that, Barabara - practical experience versus theory! But, I imagine it would be unusual in nature for a bird to overeat a single food source as multiple food sources are generally available.

That said, the gold and greenfinches in my garden ought to be looking like sunflowers by now - I only attract a handful but they eat so much between them, it's unbelieveable. I keep expecting to see a portly loking goldfinch too fat to fly perched on my feeder, but no, they remain looking fit and slim!

scampo said:

It's good to read that, Barabara - practical experience versus theory! But, I imagine it would be unusual in nature for a bird to overeat a single food source as multiple food sources are generally available.

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I agree here, surely the natural selection by predation will ween out birds that tend to feed mainly on unhealthy food leaving only a population of birds that are immune or selective in their diet.



Brett.

scampo said:

Hi Mark, Thanks for replying. I do see "where your'e coming from", as they say, and I'm just more curious than anything. It's just that bread has been the staple way millions of folk here have fed birds (and ducks) for years.

And millions of folks have fed corn to birds here in North America, especially to ducks, for years. We are now finding, as reported by Texas A&M University Kingsville recently, that not only corn (although it is the principle culprit) but some other grains as well can be a huge reservoir of aflatoxin which is deadly to birds. The simple fact that we have been doing it for years does not make it safe. Napoleon was eating the same foods for years - and aparently they were loaded with toxins!

As for vinegar being toxic, well, what's left aftyer baking will be present in tiny amounts; it's also a very simple naturally occurring organic acid that would, I am guessing here, be easily metabolised in the gut of birds and man.

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My point about vinegar was NOT that it is toxic - I would never claim that and do not know of a scientist who would. I pointed out that the use claimed on North American bread is very different than that earlier stated - it is not used as a preservative here probably for the reason you mention - at the temperatures at which bread is baked it probably deteriorates.

Mark

humminbird said:

My point about vinegar was NOT that it is toxic - I would never claim that and do not know of a scientist who would...

Mark

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"...at least I am not pickling myself when I eat it."

I assumed you meant it - missed the joke, sorry.