Inequality - It's For The Birds...

Feeding birds is hard-wired into our national psyche. The apocryphal Victorian “tuppence a bag” for seed for the Trafalgar Square pigeons has morphed into a national pastime, with an estimated 17m households spending £250m a year on more than 150,000 tonnes of bird feed – enough to feed the entire breeding population of the 10 most common feeder-using bird species year-round three times over.

Good for us, doing our bit gor nature! Strange to se a good news article in the 'Guardian', though? 

This was brought into sharp relief during the pandemic, with many of us discovering the joy of attracting birds to our own gardens after losing access to wildlife and wild spaces.

Oooh, I don't like where this is going. 'Joy'? We can't have that! 

So we know that bird-feeding can be good for humans, but what about for birds?

We could ask them? But...what could possibly be wrong with it? 

Blue tits, nuthatches and great-spotted woodpeckers have never had it so good. These species have something else in common though: they are all dominant species that can monopolise resources such as food and nesting sites.

Ah. Of course. No socialism to ensure sparrows and swallows go equally hungry! 

Marsh and willow tits, lesser-spotted woodpeckers, several migrant flycatchers and warblers have been slowly disappearing from the British landscape since the 1970s, as one woodland area after another has lost cherished members of its dawn chorus choir.

Look! It's even affecting migrants! No wonder the 'Guardian' is worried! 

Forced to develop strategies to survive, they have become more innovative and have diversified the ways they interact with the landscape. Unlike blue and great tits, the drabber and less obtrusive willow tits excavate their own nest holes, meaning they don’t have to wait until a natural cavity forms, which a more dominant species would probably take. This means they can occupy new sites, like young woodlands, which are unsuitable for their more imposing relatives. Similarly, the marsh tit collects and catches food and stores it for a rainy day – or a harsh winter. It is faster to find new food resources and has a stronger bill to deal with harder food items.

Hurrah! Innovation and adaptation saves the day...but wait. That can't be the answer, surely? 

But these fancy tactics are rendered null and void by bird feeders providing food 24/7; it is gobbled up by the dominant species, sending their numbers up, and increasing the threat to subordinate species.

See? It's all our fault, of course. Does the 'Guardian' have any suggestions? 

We badly need a better understanding of the consequences of bird feeding and, armed with this information, there is one clear piece of advice we can give for those concerned with bird populations. Where possible, improving habitat amount and quality in our gardens is a vastly more important gift to nature than any bird seed handouts.

That's if you have a garden. But what am I saying? Guardianistas always assume everyone lives like they do...