Feeding birds antisocial?

[Feedthebird]

After not topping up the feeder for a while I’ve started feeding the birds again.
There are so many - I have parakeets, starlings, jackdaws, robin, sparrows and other small birds.
Due to the orientation of my house the feeders are close to the street. Is this antisocial as many of the birds are landing on the trees which are on the street.

YANBU - the birds need feeding
YABU - for encouraging birds onto the streets trees

We have chickens in our garden so we're advised to stop feeding the wild birds because of the risk of Avian Flu. We really miss the birds

Not unless I get shat on if walking underneath the trees lol 🤣

Now you’re just being pedantic

If it attracts seagulls like it does around here, then yes, they are nasty, dirty sods.

Little birds, nope, nothing wrong with that.

I’d love to know how much joy your children are able to extract from a wooden trampoline…

That would certainly be character-building 😂

@Daftasabroom thank you for that. It will be a nice project for me, I try to plant bee friendly flowers but, don't really have a clue otherwise.

They do attract rats even if hanging, we had them in our old garden.

@Allthecatseverywhereallatonce the only thing I would say is don't expect instant results. And don't buy seeds with any kind of "extra boost", these can be coated in neonictinoids which are absorbed by the plant as it grows and the kills all the bugs and bees. We use Chiltern Seeds who don't coat their seeds.

We let also let mice live and live, stoats and owls keep on top of them. We see stoats regularly, but the owls are bastards at 5 am.😉

@Allthecatseverywhereallatonce and don't get too hung up on native plants. We have a 4 m cordyline australis, which started off as a houseplant. It literally hums with bees when it's in flower and there must have been a 100 starlings feeding off the berries at the same time at one point. We also get the odd hummingbird hawk moth as special treat in the summer.

How are you supposed to feed hedgehogs if food isn't allowed on the floor 🫣?

I would like to have more songbirds in the communal garden of my block of flats. Unfortunately we have squawking magpies and gulls. Residents throw food out of windows. If you have lots of magpies you will have fewer songbirds because they are nest robbers.

If you have trees in a street you have cars parked beneath them. People don't want loads of feral pigeons crapping on their cars. or anywhere else.

There's a world of difference between someone putting out mealworms for the robins and niger seed for the goldfinches, and someone throwing out stale bread.

Garden for hedgehog food and shelter.

Of course it's not anti social it's the opposite you are doing a good thing if seed is in feeders then won't attract rats and there is so much fast food packaging that is the real problem. Feed the birds🦆🦜🐥🐣🦢🕊️

I refilled the feeders this morning and had many small bird visitors until this sparrowhawk scared them away. It’s amazing how much wildlife a few nuts and seeds can attract.

You are within 30ft of a rat right now. They do not need encouraging, they turn up anyway. Feeding the birds is a social good and we ought to put ourselves out to do it - even if it's seagulls (the Common Gull is on the A List, meaning it is in trouble, for example). Birds are nice to have around. I like them in the trees, I like to hear them singing and see them flying, or walking about. What is wrong with our society that we don't like birds in the street ffs?

Common Gulls are an endangered species. They flock into town - I also live by the seaside - because there is so little food in the sea. Pollution from filthy industries and allowing private water companies to discharge sewage into the sea are the cause of that loss. Time to put our collective feet down about actual pollution, not notional (money earning for the 1%) climate change.

Feed the birds. They are entitled to roost in the street's trees if they like. It's their world too. It's not anti-social, it's recommended by the RSPB to protect vulnerable birds especially in winter and spring. Good on you for feeding them. And remember that birds control pests so pay us back for being fed.

You might think that you are helping birds by feeding them but the opposite is true. You might think that it is cute to see several juvenile magpies out your window and want to feed them.

What should happen is that they disperse and find their own territories. They should develop survival strategies including how to find food from the wild. If you feed them none of this will happen. Then when you get bored with feeding them - or more likely when you get told to stop - they starve.

The more you feed birds like pigeons the more of them there will be. They breed. More of them survive the winter. More mouths to feed. They become more dependent on human beings. If you have more of certain species you will get less of other species.

I don't know how that can be the case the RSPB recommend it we've always put lots of bird feeders in out garden and bird boxes too. It nice to see the birds come into the garden.

Seagulls are a massive problem here in Dublin, particularly the further northerly coastal parts, they're so aggressive & noisy, our local county council are going back & forth over a cull, it was done before in a place called Balbriggan as it was getting dangerous for pets & even children, it's all fun & games having an ice cream or a chip taken off you as a day tripper to the seaside but if you're living with that daily it would drive you mental!

Your garden sounds gorgeous - so much thought has gone into making the most of your space.

@ChristmasinBurrRidge thank you, it's very much a case of less is more! And creating micro habitats. We enjoy it so just a hobby.

afaik the RSPB recommends putting out suitable food in late winter and early spring when food is scarce. This helps birds survive including the ones that are endangered (e.g. sparrows, seagulls). I don't see this as anti-social in the least, nor does it prevent birds from foraging on their own and setting up territories. We feed the birds but have only one pair of magpies (seem permanent) and a pair of blackbirds, and also a pair of robins. I have seen bluetits and coletits as well as wrens, who come to feed but are not permanent (the wrens might be, difficult to tell). We have about a third of an acre garden and back onto a river and nature reserve.

I would love to feed the birds but the food does attract rats whether in a feeder or on the ground.

You feed seagulls? In my block of flats we now have seagulls nesting on our roof because someone was feeding them. They don't just shit on cars they shit on people too. Not antisocial in the least!

In my opinion the RSPB aren't being specific enough. If the RSPB recommends feeding birds then people will take that as a reason to throw stale bread out of windows and emptying last night's takeaway onto the grass.

You have to thing what time of year, what specific foods, are you harming specialist birds by helping generalist birds, and disease. This Guardian article is helpful https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/25/feeding-birds-garden-boost-dominant-species

"This poses a conundrum. For declining species of farmland birds such as tree sparrows, bird feeders represent a lifeline in an increasingly sterile farmed environment. Likewise, it seems possible that populations of house sparrows and starlings in some cities would fail if handouts ceased. And yet, in many areas, feeding blue and great tits may be the nail in the coffin for their scarcer relatives. We stand witness to the biodiversity crisis. In good faith, we have tried to help wildlife. In doing so, we have likely given a leg-up to the generalists over the specialists."