Feeding Native Birds

Well it’s Springtime again and after some useful rains recently, a great harvest looms. That’s if mother nature hasn’t something ‘up her sleeve’ to destroy things. Here’s hoping that all progresses well.

Native birds and their chicks have begun to repopulate the environment and of course the natural thing is for us humans to encourage their development by supplementing their food intake. We can cause illness and disease if we feed them the wrong foods. Remember, native birds are not garbage disposers, they have specific needs and should be treated like ‘members of the family’. Rather feeding them ‘the scraps’, we should endeavour to sometime buy them specialized foods to look after their health.

Safest Options

Bread by itself is not harmful to birds but too much can prevent natives from receiving a nutritional diet. It has recently been found that natives in parks and waterways constantly being fed bread by humans are developing eating disorders which can produce symptoms such as disorientation and lack of the ability to fly. Limit the use of bread (especially white) and then stick to grain varieties.

The other big ‘no-no’ is minced meat, a common favourite of feeders. The meat, beside being low in nutrition value can contain virus’s and preservatives that can be transferred to the birds. In fact, the use of any raw meat should be avoided. We don’t eat raw meat and neither should they. Small amounts of cooked meat can be used.

Gapeworm is just one of the many parasites that affect Australian birds. It is commonly found in Magpies that have eaten too much raw mince.

Other foods to avoid

This male Scarlet Robin, an insect eater who feeds on the ground, captured on a farm fence, no doubt surveying the insects over a wheat crop.

From: Feeding the Birds at Your Table by Darryl Jones (2019).

— Bob Marshall