Feeding birds in our gardens is a joy – but it may be harming weaker species

‘Spare a thought for pied flycatchers, arriving back from Africa to ever-more unpredictable spring weather in the UK to compete with species including great tits for food and nests.’ Photo hedera.baltica/flickr
Author
Alexander C Lees
Year
2021
Published in
The Guardian

By boosting dominant species such as great tits, human-provided food can make life harder for many woodland 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.

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