Do feeders change bird's habits? (2 Viewers)

Bird feeders and garden bird feeding stations have become hugely popular in the last couple of decades so has this changed the habits and disribution of many so-called "garden" birds?

How many birds can you name that were once rarely seen in our gardens but are now a common (or at least relatively common) sight due to the proliferation of these feeding stations?

My new birds would have to be:-
Nuthatch
siskin
bluetit
coal tit
great tit
marsh tit
willow tit
greenfinch
How's that for an opener Bristolbirder, Nina.

Good start Nina. Cheers.

Mine would have to be:-

Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Bullfinch.

Haven't seen Siskin round here for several years and NEVER seen Marsh/Willow Tit in the garden.

I am surprised, as most people over your way seem to spot siskins before I do, I never thought of chaffinch or bullfinch, probably as we had an orchard and poultry, so food spills would bring them out of the hedgerows, along with chiffchaff and yellowhammer, Nina.

While we have seen orioles in the trees and on the ground every year, we've never had them at our feeders until this spring, and suddenly,we have several Baltimores coming to eat every day. The interesting thing is that in photographs I've taken, I've noticed that the two most fearless males are banded with identical bands, the first banded birds I've ever seen at our feeders. I was going to set up a mealworm station in hopes of drawing some new birds out of the forest, but have decided against!

More worrying, some birds are probably declining because of bird feeders - birds which are best adapted to finding highly dispersed food, and can't compete with stronger, more aggressive relatives which are benefitting from easy food on feeders:

Song Thrushes, getting pushed out by Blackbirds

Willow Tits, Marsh Tits and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, being out-competed by Great Tits and Blue Tits which snatch their nest holes.

And in the US, Starlings and House Sparrows causing reductions in numbers of native hole-nesting birds - the same phenomenon, but much better known than in Britain

Michael

That is very interesting Michael, as a friend who lives fairly near to me has a breeding pair of lesser spotteds, and marsh and willow tits at his feeding station, but not many blue, graet and coal tits, he says it is because the Greater spotted woodpecker destroys their nests and kills and eats the nestlings. I find different bird watchers have differing activities by their birds, so what do your birds do? Nina.

Hmmm. Interesting point of view Michael. Are you suggesting bird feeders can be a bad thing? I have never heard of this theory before.

A couple of points:-

1. Are Song Thrushes attracted by feeders?

2. Wouldn't Blue and Great Tits outcompete Willow Tits and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers anyway in a more "natural" setting?

3. As stated in a previous post, "my" garden birds seem to use the feeder to supplement their diet at this time of the year rather than rely on it.

4. Natural food is in short supply at this time of the year for Greenfinch and Bullfinch.

Surely the above points show that artificially feeding birds does more good than harm?

Hi Bristolbirder,

1. Yes, Song Thrushes can be attracted by feeders - as long as there's no Blackbirds there to bully them.
Song Thrushes are good at locating thinly dispersed food, slightly better at it than Blackbirds, so they have a competitive advantage where the only food is thinly dispersed. But Blackbirds are very good at exploiting abundant dense food sources, and achieve high population densities when there's plenty of it. And once they're at high density, they competitively exclude Song Thrushes.

2. Again, in natural situations, where finding food takes a lot of time, Willow Tits and Lesser Spots are able to compete. And at low densities, G & B Tits can find enough natural holes not to need to dispossess WT & LSpW (which dig their own).
I know of several local sites near me which used to have breeding Willow Tits, but lost them within a few years of feeding stations being put in; in the same cases, the number of Blue & Great Tits has risen dramatically.

3. Yes, but it enables these species to breed more successfully, and thereby live at higher population density than would naturally happen. And this can have adverse effects on other species, as they are also taking natural food as well - natural food that would otherwise be utilised by different species.

4. (True for Greenfinch, but not for Bullfinch, which can eat tree flowers)

Last point - "artificially feeding birds does more good than harm?" - Hard to say. It depends on your definitions. It certainly increases the total bird population. But it does so at the cost of reducing the species diversity. The common species get commoner, and the rare species get rarer.

Interestingly, a similar effect can be seen with plants - take a species-rich flower meadow on poor (infertile) soil, and spread fertiliser on it. A small handful of aggressive, fast-growing species benefit greatly from the fertiliser, and become dominant. The total plant biomass rises sharply, but the species diversity drops.

Personally, I reckon it is better to plant trees & shrubs which produce more natural food, than it is to put up a bird table.

Michael

Excellent post Michael! You have certainly given me food for thought. Have to wonder how the RSPB and BTO would respond though!

I would have to say however that your points are probably more valid in a large rural garden as opposed to my small suburban one. For example, I never see Willow Tits or Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, and Coal Tit and Song Thrush are only occasional visitors to the feeding area in winter. Before I set up my feeders Greenfinches were only seen occasionly and Bullfinches never. Without my feeders I would certainly not be getting daily visits from these birds. It is difficult to see which birds would be suffering as a result of this.

I agree with your last point about planting more natural trees and shrubs to provide birds with more natural food and shelter. This is something that I have tried to do myself and is something, hopefully, that all birders should be attempting.

Hi Bristolbirder,

Thanks! Good points about suburbia, though I'd suspect it would apply to Song Thrush in suburbs too - my garden is also a small suburban one, and Song Thrushes at least used to breed regularly in mine and surrounding gardens in decent numbers; they are still present, but only one or two singing males now, perhaps unmated, as I don't see newly fledged young in the garden any more. Trouble is, it is difficult to judge how common Song Thrushes would be as there are other things affecting their population like use of slug pellets and other pesticides (we don't use them, but the neighbours might be)

The BTO & RSPB - not sure how they'd react to this, but they certainly ought to be doing research on it! It'd be a difficult choice for them, given the funding and promotion they get from the bird food companies

I guess one further point which we all of us tend not to think about, is production of bird food - it has to be grown on a farm somewhere, and food harvested and sent to us is food that is denied to birds in the area it comes from. Should we care more about our birds, or birds on peanut farms in Africa and China? A difficult one to call.

On a similar line, there was a big ruckus recently (and maybe still on-going?) about farmers in the USA wanting to poison big flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds, that were causing damage to their crops. And the crops were? . . . sunflowers for the US (& UK) bird food market. Stinks of hypocrisy, doesn't it!

Michael

Michael.
It certainly does stink of hypocrisy. The production of bird food is now a massive business and is probably not as environmentally sound as it should be.

Your posts have certainly made me think about my bird feeding habits. Somehow you seem to have taken away some of the pleasure I had and you have now cast seeds of doubt in my mind as to whether I'm doing the right thing!

Hi Bristolbirder,

Ooops! Sorry, certainly didn't want to take away your pleasure! But I will admit it is thinking about things like this that made me stop putting food out a few years ago (plus the unpleasant chore of having to clean the birdtable regularly!)

I've got a decent-size Cotoneaster frigidus (bird-sown, to be even more boastful!!) in the garden, and its great - in January, on the day of the RSPB Garden Birdwatch, it had 16 Redwings, a Fieldfare and 6 Blackbirds in it . . and then, at the end of April, the last few berries left were finished off by a flock of 15 Waxwings )

But on the down side - no more House Sparrows in the garden, last one was 3 or 4 months ago. Cheeky buggers and used to ruin the crocuses, but I miss them.

Michael

Michael,
Excellent points you have raised, particularly about the slug and snail pellets. Aren't snails one of the principle natural foods of the
Song Thrush? I am all for abandoning the cultured garden beds in favour of native, food-bearing shrubs and dig up your lawn and plant wild grasses and cowslips. Just imaging the joy of not having to mow every week!! OK, I know I am dreaming of a utopian surburbia but what is life without a dream?

This has been the first year the roses in the front garden haven't been treated for aphids.......... bloody things were covered with them, the missus was all geared up to give them a squirt but the house sparrows beat her to it. In just a few days all 40+ bushes were picked clean Think i'll try the same again next year, saves us(her) doing all the hard work.

I tend to put food out on the feeder and until a few weeks ago it only attacted pigeons and collared doves, now I have blackbirds, blue tits, starlings, sparrows, a dunnock and a magpie, but we have recently started to plant trees and plants to attact the birds in, lets see if it works next year when they grow a bit.

Two broad points to add:

1 Song Thrush decline is linked to the broad dispersal habits of the fledged (independant) young. They disperse much more widely than Blackbirds ie into farmland where pickings (if any) are leaner and possibly more contaminated.

2 The reintroduction of Red Kites into England was likely to have been necessary because the Welsh birds have been (since at least 1969?) fed at one ore more sites. This depresses the 'normal' dispersal of young birds away from the natal area. In a lifetime in Gwent I have only seen 2 Red Kites in the county - both in the last six years - the first was unmarked but the second was a wing-tagged English bird.

Andy.

This is more for bristolbirder and Michael, I have been living in this house foe 8 years now and the garden was just strapgrass, from front to back and burried the contents, concrete and scrap metal and lethal it was too, with broken glass all over the place, the next two gardens were well kept but in the tangle of rubbish were many dead bird carcases. I hit the garden with all I could and all organically, planted berry bearing shrubs, insect encouraging shrubs and plants, and delighted in the arrival of thrushes, blackbirds and robins, and doing all I could to assist them in their fight for survival. the next door folks started admiring my efforts and complaind about the loss of thrushes, this with slugpellets in his hand!! I politely pointed out that the demise of thrushes was in his own hands, and explained that what he was doing was causing thrushes to lay softshelled eggs, so they would never hatch. He stopped that instant, and we have a slowly recovering thrush population, and though I don't always hear them, I know they are still around as the snail shells are left all over my garden, and on the patio and path. They are very shy birds but we know they are around, and I see only one pair each year, but they are reaching further down the road now. Therefore I don't necessarily agree with you aboout feeding causing pressure on the less common birds, but that feeding helps maintain the population.It is the pressure on habitat that causes the problems. Nina.

Thanks for that Nina. What a lovely story and congratulations on doing such a fine job with your garden. Maybe I'll carry on feeding after all!

Michael (Frankis), could you please explain a little more the section where you say: "But Blackbirds are very good at exploiting abundant dense food sources, and achieve high population densities when there's plenty of it. And once they're at high density, they competitively exclude Song Thrushes."

Do blackbirds always exclude Song Thurshes from their feeding territory? Blackbirds can be quite unpredictable towards each other in defending feeding territory; sometimes they tolerate other blackbirds, sometimes not. Presumably the less food is available the more defensive they become. But if there is plenty of food will they still exclude Song Thrushes just as vigorously? Or is it just that if the Blackbird population increases they will inevitably squeeze out (instinctively) the thrushes?

And does the same apply to Great Tits and Blue Tits versus Willow Tits, Marsh Tits and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers? Why would Greats and Blues tolerate each other but be hostile to the others?

Also I'm not sure about your analogy with plants. I know the 'dark' (ie gritstone) and 'white' (ie limestone) areas of the Peak District quite well. On much of the gritstone uplands the soil is nutrient poor, acid, and supports a narrower range of plant species than the 'improved' soils in the limestone areas, which support a much wider range of species.

Perhaps I'm just not on the right wavelength, but I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate a little on the very interesting points you have made?

Alan Hill

Hi Alan,

Will do, but I'll need a bit of time to detail it

Michael