To Feed or Not To Feed...

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drifter
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To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by drifter »

I post a lot of my photos on a bird forum. You should see the reaction they have had. It has polarised that forum with 1/2 a dozen bird carers getting into me.
They got into me over diet, humanisation & dependency.

Not wanting to hurt my Burras I looked into this. Guess what I found;
40% of Australian households feed backyard birds
45 million do in the US & up to 75% of all households in the UK (both Govt's actively promote it)

Outside that there is bugger all. With all that activity, there has been almost no research on the affects this has on wild birds.
I asked my detractors to offer up any info that says what I'm doing is wrong & why. The response was mainly "we've been bird carers for 25 yrs" Some gave me links to bird org's. But it was anecdotal at best.


As both this forum & the bird forum know, I have a new GoPro

So I posted a new project - grass view photos of my backyard visitors.

I posted the 1st photo (below) with this description "junk food v's fresh fruit & veg. Turns out birds have the same issue we do.
choice of meat, rice, banana, apple, potato peels, pumpkin pulp
5 hours later meat - gone. rice - gone. fruit & veg untouched.
packed up all the camera gear, jumped in the car to go down the shops, and noticed I had a late visitor.
Finally found someone that likes fruit & veg" The vego was a Bush Turkey, a first for me. (the over exposed bowl has the apple & banana)

The howls began again - same objection. Killing them nutritionally.

More searching;
I did find 2 published studies. 1 from the US & 1 from the CSIRO.
The CSIRO one is sensational. They look at the affects from so many aspects.

For what the reports said & the forums replies, go to my blog;
http://bradsburras.blogspot.com/2014/09 ... stion.html
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nomad
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by nomad »

I used to work with a bloke who did his thesis on the lifecycle of magpies. he had some stats about them dying early and how hard their life really was. blah blah blah

anyway, i was telling him how i fed the local birds at my place in Terrigal and he hit the roof. He wasnt a greenie tree hugger but used to be the captain of a local RL footy team and was a hard nut.
he explained how they depended on my food etc etc.
One of my neighbours used to throw bread slices onto his roof to attract the lorikeets - i knew that was bad but i feed them 'natural things'

have a look at birds aust site and they say to plant native trees to attract birds.

i cant see a problem with humanisation or dependency as long as you make sure that once you start feeding them, you have to do it forever.

to me any bird that lives in an urban area is humanised to some extent.
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drifter
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

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Hi Nomad, , dependency is one of the myths of feeding wild birds. The CSIRO report dispels that. Birds that have access to 100% unnatural food, still only use it for 25% of their daily intake.

What surprised me as well was the idea of planting plants to attract birds. this is from that same report

"In Australia, virtually every large city has experienced massive increases in the number of Rainbow Lorikeets (Trichoglossus haematodus), a trend attributed to the popularity of nectar-bearing shrubs and trees being planted in suburban gardens (White et al. 2005). The same food source appears to be enhancing the well-known effects of Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala). Similar examples abound, all with a familiar lesson: even good intentions can have unexpected influences"

Mother Nature doesn't like to be fukced with
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Ben Jam
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by Ben Jam »

Do they have the same issue with Noise Miners as the Indian Myna?

Are Nosie Miners native?

I was reading how the Indian Myna was basically being the Michael Ennis of the bird world and kicking out all the native birds, by destroying there nests and killing there young.

They also said you can now loan traps which comes with a bag, when you catch the birds you just gas them using the car exhaurt.

Do you see much of that down your way?
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drifter
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by drifter »

Hi BJ, Noisy Miners are native. I don't know that they kill the young of other birds, but thru their aggressive behaviour, certainly drive them out of the area. Their populations are booming. That's because the more forested vegetation we remove for development or grazing plays straight into their hands.
the 2nd problem is they are supremely adaptable to the urban landscape. It's a cascading affect.
And as they're a Native species - protected by law.
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by blw »

drifter wrote:Hi BJ, Noisy Miners are native. I don't know that they kill the young of other birds, but thru their aggressive behaviour, certainly drive them out of the area. Their populations are booming. That's because the more forested vegetation we remove for development or grazing plays straight into their hands.
the 2nd problem is they are supremely adaptable to the urban landscape. It's a cascading affect.
And as they're a Native species - protected by law.
Its the Indian miner which is the bad one isnt it.
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by drifter »

Another "Cane Toad" fukcup from the Aust Gov't.

"First introduced to Australia to control insect pests, the arrival of the Common Indian Myna (Acridotheres tristis) in a region signals a disastrous change to come in local bird populations. This extremely aggressive bird chases out native birds and small tree dwelling marsupials such as feather-tailed gliders.

It's not just Australia that is suffering from the myna onslaught - in 2000, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the bird among '100 of the World's Most Invasive species'"
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by NBN »

Yes those Indian Mynas are a real scourge!

Drifter, on a couple of good notes I saw what I think was a Powerful Owl in our backyard the other night carrying some type of carcass – probably a possum, they seem to like them and of more significance I recently spotted a Regent Honeyeater. Not many of these left, some estimates indicate potentially only 400......hope he finds a mate!!
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by Matt Flynn »

If they put 50c on the head of each Indian Myna every kid with a slug gun could make pocket money.
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

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NBN wrote:Yes those Indian Mynas are a real scourge!

Drifter, on a couple of good notes I saw what I think was a Powerful Owl in our backyard the other night carrying some type of carcass – probably a possum, they seem to like them and of more significance I recently spotted a Regent Honeyeater. Not many of these left, some estimates indicate potentially only 400......hope he finds a mate!!
What a small bl..dy world. (I'll get back to that)

NBN, there is so much amazing Nature going on around us. Just need to look. That's interesting about the possum. They're not small nor particularly friendly.
Guess you'd have some worried cats in the neighbourhood.

Now for the small world. And it concerns your regent honeyeater.

Minutes before I read this, I posted this on that bird forum yes - they're still into me :wink:

Mother Nature – Oh how fine a line She walks.
CAUSE & EFFECT
It has been suggested that I should attract birds to my backyard, by planting native flowering shrubs.
Now on the surface that seems the obvious solution……
But dig a little under the surface, and you might find you get the exact opposite happen. Actually get fewer birds to your backyard & in the process, upset the ecosystem.
And the culprit – Noisy Miners.

Thru their aggressive personalities, they drive other Insectivores/honey eaters out of the area.

CAUSE:
CSIRO: “In Australia, virtually every large city has experienced massive increases in the number of Rainbow Lorikeets, a trend attributed to the popularity of nectar-bearing shrubs and trees being planted in suburban gardens. The same food source appears to be enhancing the well-known effects of Noisy Miners. Similar examples abound, all with a familiar lesson: even good intentions can have unexpected influences.”

EFFECT:
Latrobe Uni: High populations of Noisy Miners drive out the other insectivores. One of the roles of these insectivores is to maintain the health of the Gum trees. With their absence there has been an increase in the failing health of the woodland fringing their territory.
It seems there is no simple answer to this question.
Bet you didn’t think this was going to end up on gum trees when you started reading
Latrobe study;
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/zoology/dept- ... -Broch.pdf
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by NBN »

Apparently a mature Powerful Owl can take 200-300 possums annually!!! I could believe this given I've only seen 1 possum in 3 years and no cats allowed in the estate - bird and small invertebrate protection.

I actually suggested a trapping program for the minors (noisy) to tip the balance back in the 'right' direction - we are overrun up here, like roving gangs of teenagers in school hols...

Yes Matt, pity the Indian Myna wasn't a problem when sling shots were part of my daily apparel!
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by drifter »

NBN wrote: Yes Matt, pity the Indian Myna wasn't a problem when sling shots were part of my daily apparel!
Haven't they taken the fun away from todays youth :)
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Re: To Feed or Not To Feed...

Post by NBN »

drifter wrote:
NBN wrote: Yes Matt, pity the Indian Myna wasn't a problem when sling shots were part of my daily apparel!
Haven't they taken the fun away from todays youth :)
Maybe it's a good thing Drifter........couple of cans of Redbull or Mother, some surgical rubber and a handful of ball bearings......someone's going to lose an eye!

I suppose we had the cordial 'that I like best' and Tang. :D
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