Feeding the birds - Is it a good idea?

     One of the things that I noticed while counting this spring was,  people feeding the birds; the swans, the geese, the ducks and the gulls.  Of course, most of us realize that we shouldn't do that anymore but do we really know why?  I see the signs posted by the Town, yet I still see families come walking down the path , clutching their bags of white bread and throwing pieces out to the waiting birds. Is it such a bad thing?  Don't the birds need us to feed them?  Aren't they only better off from us doing this for them?

     Well, the short answer is STOP IT!!!  No, the birds do not benefit from eating white bread (or any bread, actually!).  

  

   Have you ever seen any of the water birds looking like the ones above?  You may even feel bad for them and you just know in your heart that they're not going to make it.  They'll probably be dead soon because obviously they have something wrong with them.  What happened to them?

     What happened is that people have been feeding them!  Instead of them eating what nature has dictated they should consume (pond grasses), they've been gorging on bread, crackers, cookies and other totally non-nutritious foods that are robbing their bodies of the minerals and vitamins they require to be healthy!  Most of these birds were young when they started being fed by people. They never received the proper nutrition to enable their bones and joints to form properly.  The result is called "Angel Wing" , "Slipped Wing" or "Crooked Wing" and it always results in the bird's early death.  The condition itself is not fatal, but the bird can no longer fly, and thus no longer able to escape predators.  And unless they live on an island very, very far from shore (that a predator would never be able to swim to), this bird is a walking time bomb.  There is absolutely no cure or treatment that will enable these birds to heal.

     I'm guilty of feeding birds.  When I was a child, we would always go to the park or the beach and feed whatever birds happened to be around.  And then I started studying Environmental Science and learned that we can really kill something with kindness.  I'm so very grateful that we now have this enlightened awareness of how our actions can impact our environment.  While I was growing up, we never considered the consequences.  We truly believed we were doing the right thing.  Now, we know better!