Undoing the harm (1 Viewer)

[confused]

Given the January 2022 British Birds article by Lees et al*, I am keen to try to encourage sparrows and finches in our rural garden instead of Blue & Great Tits.
Anyone have a suggestion about what feed to use that won’t boost the local titmouse population ?
Thanks
C

*The article presents a convincing argument that the huge quantity of sunflower seeds and peanuts etc provided in Britain has boosted Blue and Great Tits at the expense of subordinate species such as Marsh and Willow Tits, and lesser spotted Woodpeckers - which are now rare and declining.

 

[Richard D]

I read the article and for me they didn't prove any causal link, just a correlation. I think habitat loss and climatic change are probably far bigger factors.

However if you want to attract sparrows they'll happily take seed of the ground, as will most finches, whilst the tits don't like ground feeding.

 

[PYRTLE]

I feed white millet by feeder for the local small House Sparrow population, which is also taken by Chaffinch when spilled onto the ground.

 

[King Edward]

Personally I'm quite sceptical about the conservation value of garden birdfeeders. I copied the list below from a post I wrote in 2016, about the advantages of encouraging birds through habitat improvements and not putting out feed at all:
1. It's cheaper
2. Doesn't require farmland elsewhere to be taken up growing birdfood.
3. Doesn't encourage squirrels, rats and pigeons.
4. Can benefit bird species that don't normally come to feeders.
5. Doesn't concentrate birds in an unnatural way that can spread disease (e.g. trichomoniasis in greenfinches).
6. Can benefit other wildlife in a way that simply putting out birdfood doesn't.
7. Bird numbers give a more accurate picture of your garden habitat value (e.g. good numbers of robins, dunnocks, tits etc. indicate decent invertebrate numbers, in a way that a steady stream of blue tits coming to a peanut feeder doesn't).

I haven't read Alex Lees' BB article, but I have read this Guardian article by him and also this Twitter thread.

No doubt there are other considerations that should be added to the list above, particularly Alex Lees' point about the effect of increased competition between the resident generalists which benefit from feeding (& nestboxes), and specialists and migrants which mostly don't.