Feeding birds all year round? (3 Viewers)

[Rathloriel]

Can people give me their opinions on year round feeding please?
If the birds eat all the food I put out for them, should I continue to feed them all year round?
Surely if they didn't need the food they wouldn't eat it?!
Will they become so dependent on the food I put out for them that they won't be able to feed 'naturally'?
(Me and my other half disagree about this and I'd like to settle the argument!)
I still have greenfinches and dunnocks visiting but mainly house sparrows and wood pigeons.
Thanks very much for your help.
I've only been feeding birds for about 6 months and am still quite the beginner!
:eat:

 

[terryeyre]

i have been feeding birds all year round for many years,they need it now as they are moulting after the breeding season,using about 7 pounds of peanuts plus about 5 of mixed seeds at the moment per week plus scraps bread ect,so like you say if they are eating it they need it.
terry

 

[Mary Evelyn]

Hi Rathloriel,

Like Terry,

I have also fed the birds all year round for many years.The RSPB now suggest that it is important to do so because of loss of habitat etc.
The birds get used to the winter feed and come Spring they nest close to a good feeding site,so why take it away.Never made sense to me. :h?:

 

[Talon 1]

Mary,
Whats that dog chasing?
Don't you think you have worn him out enough . LOL

I just can't stop feeding them , i have fed 3 nests of sparrows which have had 3 broods to each one.
I am a 6ft ex biker, army softy but i feel kind of a duty to keep the offspring going , mind you just like my kids i wish they would bugger off and make there own way some of em!

 

[florall]

hello Rathloriel, this is my second year of feeding in the summer, and I like to think I'm helping to keep my local sparrow colony (resident in my garden hedge) healthy. I must admit, since I've been doing this, the numbers have increased enormously - this must be important bearing in mind how they've been declining nationally.

I also get, in the summer, coming to my feeders, feral pigeon (less welcome), wood pigeon, collared dove, starling (also in decline in this country, but good numbers here), greenfinch, goldfinch, great tit and blue tit. On the ground, blackbird, robin, dunnock and song thrush.

As for the point about the birds becoming dependant on your food, I wouldn't worry about this. They will be able to scavenge for food elsewhere. I go away for holiday in the summer, last year I went for three weeks at one time, and just recommenced feeding the birds when I came home. I didn't particularly notice a drop in the numbers before and after, so I don't think any birds had starved to death while I was away, although they might well have had a harder time of it.

 

[alan_rymer]

I have started to feed all year round, but not whole Peanuts in the breassing season as stupid parents can choke a chick trying to stuff a whole Peanut in. Peanuts in a wire cage are O.K. as the birds don't get the whole thing out.
As to whether birds become dependent?.
I don't think they do!.
When the feeders run out whilst I am away on holiday, the birds don't just stay there and keel over and die of starvation, but they do return very quickly. Feeders provide a supplement to their natural food, it also takes pressure off parents feeding chicks, whereby they can forage for food more suitable for chicks and have a rest, wash ,breakfast, and brushup at the feeder station before the almost relentless toil of feeding up kids start again.

 

[Marmot]

I feed them the whole year through, I know it was appreciated by the BTS a couple of years ago when all they had to do was leave the box and they had instant food.

As it takes them quite a bit of energy to locate the food in gardens it seems rather cruel when these supplies just stop, imagine if you went to your local pub, shops etc and found out you couldn't have anymore supplies.

I remember Bill Oddie stating he feeds them all the year round and if its good enough for him its good enough for me.

 

[Euan Buchan]

I Feed them all year round

 

[bluetit]

difficult( or not)

Funny that, I've just been debating that for the umpteenth time with my beloved, we are both softies and just one glimpse of a winged thing that catches my eye and puts the act on of " feed me pleeease or I'm sure to fall off my perch" will 99% of the time provoke a favourable reaction on our part ( the other 1% being where I'm falling off my perch with shock of how much you can spend on decent birdfood!).
I have fed birds for the best part of 30 years now always for about 6 months of the year, during the "dark" season, end autumn, winter and beginning of spring, a big variety of things from different seeds and grains to fruit and raisins, meat/ fat as well as dried insect food and mealworms and I get a big variety of birds as a result - this year is the first where, via rearing the bluetits, I'm more than ever involved in the goings on out there and we've been wondering about the pros and cons of year-round feeding.
I'm torn between two sides of the situation, cost aside, one being that no matter how well I feed I can never really emulate their natural diet and therefore I wonder whether they are getting all of the right nutrients at particularly strategically important times - laying eggs and especially feeding the chicks - because I have noticed that before they forage they will use the given food to feed to the babies.
The other side being: carry on regardless, feed them anyway because the whole habitat/ environment situation is so screwed up that as long as they've got something reasonable down their gullets nothing else matters.
EXCEPT am I not encouraging overbreeding that way? For example we've got a lot of blackbirds here this year, a veritable explosion of them, even if only half the chicks survive, where is the rest going to set up territory next year? Blackbirds have a lifespan of up to 18 years, lots of breeding years in that, lots of chicks, lots survive - I find that aspect rather worrying.
The Bluetit

 

[snowyowl]

I feed year round although on a much reduced basis in summer. I think that I do it more for my enjoyment then for the birds' benefit. If I stopped feeding them tomorrow, they would survive. Studies have shown that even in winter, birds still get close to 90% of their food from natural sources. The old thinking was that once you start feeding birds in winter you mustn't stop or they may die. Now people like Cornell's Feederwatch staff are saying that's not true and to not worry too much if you have to leave feeders empty in mid winter. If it's true in winter then summer certainly shouldn't be a problem for the birds.
I think it probably does help the birds in raising young but that it's not critical and is more of a personal choice for each of us.

 

[bluetit]

And yet, having a grandstand view from several of my windows out onto the garden a lot of them seem to be hanging around waiting for something foody to happen for an inordinate amount of time - preening, snoozing and sunbathing aside. Time that they would spend otherwise on foraging, would they not?
I keep telling them to get lost and do their thing but they ain't listning. Even the bluetits are more away from here and from them I would understand it. Is it hope eternal?
The Bluetit

 

[Mary Evelyn]

Hi bluetit.
There is more to feeding than simply putting out food and water, although ,some foods are extremely important.Plants and other wildlife in the gardens, are equally as important.Songbirds are on the decline,so having an abundance of Blackbirds would be a wow factor for me.Blackbirds may by the book, have a lifespan of 18 years but many many die before they are 2 years old and nothing to do with the food that is put out.A Blackbird in a safe haven,with good food and no predators may but I have just had 3 fledglings leave the nest in my front garden and with 7 cats coming in,they will need to grow up fast.
I have never read anywhere ,that there is an abundance of any of our garden birds.In most cases the opposite is true.So no,I do not think you are contributing to over breeding and if you do have as many Blackbirds as you say.Count yourself lucky. :bounce:

 

[bluetit]

Hi Mary Evelyn,
You are of course absolutely right that food alone does not determine how a bird/ group of birds will do in a given area, the seven cats on your patch must be a heartstopping nightmare, we've only got one ginger monster cat in the immediate neighbourhood and my dog is the best cat deterrant around, she hates them. Have you ever tried a commercial catdeterrant, I hear some quite positive opinions about them?
But I do have a lot of blackies this year, seven in my/ my neighbours garden alone "proven", there could be more. And I love them.
The Bluetit
P.S.: Love your gallopping puppy as well.

 

[Mabel]

I always feed the birds all year round, although they sometimes completely ignore it in summer.

 

[david2004]

I feed birds all year round as well. Strangely, this summer I've had about the same number of birds as in winter, and the food goes faster! Birds still do need our food, including summer, so it's a good idea to feed them. Especially in this country, where our birds are depending on us more and more with a loss of habitat and much less natural food around.

bluetit, feeding all year round really does help the birds. Plus, I do not think you will have a Blackbird explosion! Feeding birds certainly does not encourage overbreeding. In Blackbirds, only 30-40% of nests produce fledged young according to the RSPB. Of these, most do not survive to become adults but the population remains stable. As the RSPB and BTO now recommend year-round feeding, I think it's a very good idea.

 

[Mary Evelyn]

Hi Mary Evelyn,
You are of course absolutely right that food alone does not determine how a bird/ group of birds will do in a given area, the seven cats on your patch must be a heartstopping nightmare, we've only got one ginger monster cat in the immediate neighbourhood and my dog is the best cat deterrant around, she hates them. Have you ever tried a commercial catdeterrant, I hear some quite positive opinions about them?
But I do have a lot of blackies this year, seven in my/ my neighbours garden alone "proven", there could be more. And I love them.
The Bluetit
P.S.: Love your gallopping puppy as well.

Hi again bluetit,I have a Rottie and a Dobbie but I work full time and they come with me.Also at home,if the dogs are indoors, the cats just stick two fingers up ha ha.I send Skye my Dobbie out and that moves them on,Nkita our Rottie loves everything.My dogs only have access to our back garden and the front and side gardens are a free area,to the dreaded moggies.I do like cats but we have tried and failed with most things and the devices tend to work for only a short while ,until those wonderfully intelligent cats click.
I have got berberis right along our front wall and that has worked.The cats now use the path ha ha.It seems you can't win here, it is a small estate but at least using the path gives the birds a fighting chance.Also, Jos Stafford gave me some good advice which I have followed and that is helping too.
We have around a dozen Blackbirds plus young at the moment but before the cats we had so many more. B
Pleased you like my galloping pup.That was once me....

 

[bluetit]

I have to apologize to everyone and especially Rathloriel as this thread is yours and it seems as if I've begun to hog the conversation, SORRY!
Yes I can see the merits of year-round feeding, but there must surely be areas where it would be more beneficial/ supportive to birds than in others, I'm meanwhile sitting on the fence with that one.
Quick one to David, from 2/3 to 7(+), only this year mind you, if that ain't an explosion I don't know what is!!!!
Love to all from the Bluetit

 

[david2004]

Hi bluetit

I have also noticed a marked increase in numbers of Blackbirds here too! Perhaps it was a good breeding season, rather than down to providing food? The Blackbirds here don't come to the feeding station that often, and there seems to be enough natural food around here.

 

[terryeyre]

yes as a bill oddie fan,if he says feed them all year round it is good enough for me.i can remember years ago when about the only sort of birdfood you ever saw for sale was something called (swoop) who remberers that ha ha do they still make it ?.now i buy my birdfood in 25 kg sacks,much cheaper that way.

 

[Jos Stratford]

About the occasional stopping of feeding (e.g. when you are away on holiday). Often is said that birds become dependant on a food source, but in reality all natural food sources also run out - when an amazing berry bush is depleted, the birds simply move on. So, I think (especially in ultra-mild UK) the same is much the same with feeders in gardens. As the feeders empty, they simply move on. A second point is that since feeding is so widespread in the UK, probably it's only a question of jumping over a couple of fences and hedges to reach the next well-stocked larder. That said, I would avoid allowing a feeding station to become empty, if only to prevent your favorite birds deserting you to some other locality.
In climates of greater extremes, I do wonder if stopping in mid-winter could have an impact - for example, here in mid-winter it can be minus 25 or 30 and there is a deep snow layer. The feeding stations attract hundreds of birds daily and alternative natural food supplies are very thin on the ground, thus would probably require considerable dispersal of birds in order to support such concentrations (bird feeding is not the norm in this country, so there are no other feeders nearby). For this reason I have feeders which 'self-fill' and can hold many kilograms of food, thus lasting 2-3 weeks if need be (but in reality I think the birds would disperse and find food anyhow).