Bird feeders

I read it that you shouldn’t use flat bird feeders because of disease I thought it was encouraging you to use hanging bird feeders

Trichomoniasis (which is an ancient pathogen) has already decimated the greenfinch population and increasingly chaffinches. Both will use artificial feeders but are natural groundfeeders so will forage in the same places as other groundfeeders.

It is not only spread by pigeons. Birds of prey, domestic fowl and parrots can all have it.

It is principally a disease of young birds.

Pathogen transmission from one bird to another occurs in one of three ways:

•Infected parent feeding young
•Contaminated drinking water
•Infected bird is a prey meal for another bird (raptors most commonly)

Cleaning bird feeders regulary is important but it isn’t as important as say not artificially feeding birds when they have young or keeping the water supply fresh and the bird bath clean.

The pathogen cannot survive dryness so having feeders in a place where they are not constantly damp and wet in winter will help although natural infections occur in the wider environment so you will only be doing what little you can to stop the spread.

Thanks Graphite. It worried me that, by trying to help birds I was harming them.

My mother's was frequently knocked down and emptied by the squirrels.
I do not feed the birds, but I have trees, and do not kill the bugs either, so my garden is well populated, and my hedge is a nesting ground for tiny ones.
Any ideas how to keep the wrens, robins, martins etc while getting rid of the noisy ring neck doves would be gratefully received
I put out water if it freezes, I have only put out food twice when we had more than one day of snow

I have a hanging one which only allows the grain to be accessible to lighter/smaller birds. They perch on a bar/lever which is too small for the likes of pigeons. It’s meant solely for small garden birds but parakeets manage to get their greedy beaks filled too.

I have a washing line that is adjacent to bushes full of smaller birds. I cannot use as a washing line due to my disability. It is fine to hang hanging feeders for the little ones on. We also feed a flock of pigeons who wait on my & my neighbours roof for their food. They clear up anything left after the little ones feed so no mess in the garden or left to encourage rats & mice. Doing our best to help all birds even the ones a lot of people do not like, misguided lot!

I have never used bird feeders, largely because I have cats and I couldnt bear it if they caught the birds I had lured to my garden. Instead I planted shrubs with lots of berries and they attract a huge range of bird life. The cats cant get into the shrubs very easily and that gives the birds time to fly away.

We stopped feeding birds years ago after reading that there were quite a few reasons why we shouldn’t.
We do provide accommodation for a few families though. All thoroughly cleaned out when empty.
I find it very hard seeing people feeding bread to ducks. I have to stop myself telling them it’s really bad to do so.

I have a bird feeder attached to a first floor window. Several days the feeder has been emptied by a squirrel sitting in the feeder. It just jumps down onto the windowsill and looks at me, waiting for me to go. The hanging bird feeders which can be swung about get emptied by squirrel and bigger birds tipping it to tip out the seed.

For Susie, we have had lots of cats, and have invariably had bird-feeders, very well patronised too (esp in cold weather!).

Birds aren't silly, and have a complex alarm system, they get to know the local cats, which ones are too idle to take an interest, and which cannot be trusted. There are predator birds which are a major threat to smaller ones, like sparrowhawks, and magpies, you can do nothing about, it's nature.

Junior fledglings might also crash on training flights, they might get taken by an opportunist cat, or a predator bird, part and parcel of animal life.

No reason to not have bird feeeders, which overall do more good.

For Pamela, and that "We stopped feeding birds years ago after reading that there were quite a few reasons why we shouldn’t.".

Well, I expect the person meant well, but may have had some quite ill-informed agenda? If you look, you could doubtless find other articles which discuss the lifeline you'd be providing to many garden birds.

See the RSPB website perhaps -- are they telling lies to the bird-loving population? I'm afraid you've been quite misled.

We used to have a cat that lay out in our yard to sleep and small birds just hopped around it.😄
We have hanging bird feeders and a bird bath, both are full of customers year round, I love to watch them.
It’s important to feed them at this time of year.

Apart from the cat problem, is is it best to scatter seeds on the grass where natural drainage occurs, and seeds are well separated from each other

I have a hanging bird feeder which I keep topped up with suet balls, mixed seeds and also peanuts. I love watching the small birds, usually sparrows or blue tits but feel sorry for the Robin who just doesn’t seem able to hang on, so I put dried mealworms on the ground for him and the blackbirds who are also “ground feeders”. I also soak sultanas and put those out for the blackbirds. Then I see next doors cats eating all the food, which is very annoying. I have seen a pigeon trying to hang upside down on the feeder without much success! No squirrels at the moment.

MayBee70

Thanks Graphite. It worried me that, by trying to help birds I was harming them.

You are welcome. So long as you keep the feeders clean and dry, change water daily and clean out whatever receptacle the water is offered in you will be doing what you can to. both help the birds but also reduce the spread of Trichomonas gallinae.

Keep an eye out for birds which may be infected and step up the hygience routine if you spot any. Info from BTO in what to look for:

www.bto.org/learn/helping-birds/disease/trichomonosis

Thanks for the link to the BTO Graphite, I found it very helpful.

They’re discussing this on Winterwatch ( not sure which episode as it’s on catchup and I’ve had it on all night). They say the RSPB is looking into it and will issue a report in the spring.

MayBee, I was on tonight's episode of Winter Watch. Chris Packham was saying that even if people clean their feeders regularly it only takes one infected bird to land on the feeder, possibly 10 minutes after it has been cleaned for infection to spread! He was encouraging a more natural way of feeding birds - by planting appropriate plants . Certainly food for thought.

I was chatting to someone from the RSPB last year about how I put scrap food out for the corvids to save putting it in the bin [no green bin at my partners and he doesn't have a compost bin]. And he said that increasing the number of crows etc was bad for smaller birds, which is a bit like how they explained tonight that feeding blue and great tits was bad for other tits and finches. Maybe we should just put food out when the weather is really bad? It was also interesting that they said the amount of food we put out for the birds is far more than any of them can possibly eat. It's bad news for the people who sell bird feeders and food though but maybe someone needs to market safer ways of feeding birds. I do love watching my rooks on the ground and the birds on the feeder though.

Most of the small birds e.g. chaffinch will take the food from the feeder and hide it in crevices for when the weather is bad but the RSPB don't know why the number of chaffinches are going down so much. We are keeping on feeding until they come to a conclusion.

I was watching a discussion about this very thing on Winter Watch last night and felt a real fear that we may have unknowingly added to the rapid decline of so many species. I so hope this is not so, but now wonder if regular washing of feeders is simply not enough.

MayBee70

They’re discussing this on Winterwatch ( not sure which episode as it’s on catchup and I’ve had it on all night). They say the RSPB is looking into it and will issue a report in the spring.

It was on last night's episode, Maybee.

I was surprised, as we thought we were helping but apparently not.

It’s a difficult one, isn’t it. I hadn’t realised it was a multi million pound industry. And we all get so much pleasure from seeing the birds on our feeding stations. I wonder if old fashioned wooden bird tables are safer given that wood doesn’t ( I think) hold and breed bacteria the way that plastic does. At least putting out apples on the lawn for the blackbirds shouldn’t be problematic.

Not sure how pigeons give small birds diseases via the bird feeders as the pigeons do not go on the feeders, they just eat what is dropped from them on the ground.