Wine Man said:
I'll be awaiting an advert for Fatbirder holidays in Pigeon Fanciers Weekly then. I always regarded Fatbirder.com as an excellent resource for birders but directing people to a caged bird site with misleading text has devalued it to me. Clearly profits outweigh all else to some people.
I agree that Fat Birder may have "crossed the line" in some peoples eyes by advocating the keeping of caged birds, but let's be a little bit more pragmatic about this situation. Fat Birder still produces a wonderful resource for true birdwatchers, but, let's be honest here, for every birdwatcher there is probably a "caged bird" person out there. Many of these, as is evidenced on the birdforum membership, combine their desire to keep birds with a genuine enthusiasm to watch wild birds.
I have been a birder for over 40 years and when I lived in England I had a large aviary - 8 metres long x 2 metres high x 2.5 metres in width, in which I kept up to 40 birds, which all bred. My mentality at this time was that I was "rescuing" them, as I would much prefer to see these birds living in some semblance of normality, with space to fly, rather than spending their lives in a small table-top cage.
Having caged birds did not dampen my enthusiasm for going out at every opportunity to watch wild birds and I think many people do not understand that. People who know me will testify to my great love and enthusiasm of birds and birding.
Likewise, I feel certain that many caged bird owners are interested in wild birds and I suspect that a fair percentage of those would be interested in birding holidays. I know for a fact that numerous clients that I take on birding tours are also bird owners, be it a parrot, budgerigar, love bird or canary in a small cage, or aviary owners.
Back to Fat Birder. Regardless of opinions that he is just seeking more and more profit he is also exploiting a niche in the market which I feel sure will meet with some success.
I would like to point out that whilst I do not condone his actions entirely, I do understand his motives.
The answer is fairly simple. If you have strong feelings about Fat Birder's actions, write to him and give him a chance to explain himself, or, completely boycot his site. However, I suspect the second option would be like cuttings one's nose off to spite one's face.
Regards from Doñana.
John.
