Earlier this week I was researching some new bird gardening strategies and I was flipping through my stacks of bird gardening books and I noticed that the majority of these books spend most of their space talking about bird feeders and bird feeding “projects.”
While I am a huge proponent of anymethod that instills in children a sense of awe and wonder about nature, most of these projects involve feeding some type of bread product to your backyard birds: donuts, bagels, stale bread, etc.
The idea is to take a bagel, a donut, or other bread product and coat them with peanut butter and roll them in bird seed and then hang them about your garden for the birds to enjoy.
But these bread products are not a good choice for feeding birds, and may also be quite harmful.
Bread is not Good for Birds
Imagine if you took your small children to McDonald’s every day. They may get filled up with that food, but do you really think that’s providing all the nutrition your children need?
It’s the same thing with birds. Bread is junk food for birds, providing very little nutritional value and very little in the way of energy to survive the winter in our wildlife gardens.
At this time of year birds need the right balance of lipids and fats to supply their energy needs. And they do not receive this from bread.
Bread can be Dangerous to Birds
Bread has a propensity to mold, which is often why we think of feeding it to the birds in the first place. We think “I don’t want to waste this moldy bread, so I’ll just put it out for the birds.”
Moldy bread can poison and kill birds, and salmonella is a big concern, too. Bread products mold very quickly when exposed to moisture, which is exactly what we’re doing when we hang our bread product bird “treats” in our gardens.
Diseases from moldy bread can cause feather malformations, making the birds unable to fly. Other diseases can also cause respiratory illness and even death.
A Better Idea
You can have the same enjoyable experience with your children and create treats for the birds in your wildlife garden by replacing those bread products with pine cones. You’d still dip them in peanut butter and roll them in quality bird seeds, but you are not creating a health hazard for your avian friends.
The idea of a wildlife garden for the birds is to help them, not cause them any harm. So please don’t feed your birds bread.
Even Better
While I have nothing against bird feeders, the way I see it they are more for me to be able to get a closer look at my winged bird visitors.
You can expand the value of your wildlife garden to birds by planting a wide variety of native plants that will provide for all of their needs.
Birds enjoy seeds, nuts, berries, and the insects that will be attracted to your native plants. It is these plants that provide all of the nutritional needs of the birds in your Ecosystem Garden.
When you go beyond the bird feeder and plan your wildlife garden to support birds, butterflies, pollinators and other wildlife through all of their life cycles and through every season of the year, you are really making a difference.
And that is exactly what Ecosystem Gardening does. You’ll be creating natural habitats in your garden so that you will attract more wildlife.
More From Ecosystem Gardening:
Ecosystem Gardening Essentials
Native Plants Certificate Programs
The Benefits of Certified Wildlife Habitat Status
Cousins and Coneflowers
Dance of Joy
Everything Is Connected in Your Wildlife Garden
Helping Wildlife with Specialized Habitat Needs in Your Ecosystem Garden
This is false. Nutrition doesn't disappear when wheat is baked into a bread, and even the worst bread is better than nothing in winter when food is scarse.
These kind of 'facts' are made up to stop people from feeding birds in cities.
Jorge
Sep 3, 2017
byJorge
Wow , i should have investigated this first , i thought exactly like most people , by not throwing away bread , as to feed the birds in my back yard, sad , im glad i googled this, not to late , ill get a 25 lb bag of bird seeds , thanks again ,Byrd out !!
Because bread causes birds to become full quickly, fliers may skip foods with actual nutritional value. Birding experts Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman say, “We discourage people from feeding bread to birds, as there are far too many potential risks. If moldy, bread can be dangerous to birds.
As for the bread pieces that do pass through to the stomach, they fill up the bird with none of the nutrients it vitally needs to survive. The lack of specific vitamins and proteins cause deformities and interrupts normal growth and repair. For example, angel wing is becoming way too common in urban waterfowl species.
While tearing bagels up and giving them to the ducks and geese isn't a good idea (they can't easily digest these bread products), sparrows, jays, cardinals, and mockingbirds do love bread and you can make the bagels even more attractive with a few extra ingredients.
An animal health officer from the WWT said ducks and geese living in park ponds and lakes could become “hooked” on bread at the expense of other food. Too much starch can bring on a condition known as 'Angel wing'; a deformed growth which leaves them bloated and lethargic.
Bread products contain very little nutritional value for wildlife. In fact, they can be full of sugars, sodium and carbohydrates. Sadly, these ingredients can be deadly to birds, squirrels, fish and many other animals that are not equipped to digest this unnatural diet.
For waterfowl, a daily diet of bread, crackers and other snack foods from well-meaning park visitors can also lead to tragedy. Angel Wing syndrome is just one heart-breaking example of what can happen when we feed our snacks and leftovers to water birds.
Peanut butter is a good high-protein food for birds, and they can eat any of the same types humans do. If you're buying it specifically for birds, look for natural or organic types with the fewest additives. Try offering crunchy peanut butter for an extra nutty treat.
In fact, it's best to avoid giving birds bread with butter or any spreads because they can be harmful to them. Plain, whole-grain bread is a safer option if you want to feed birds, but it's important not to offer them too much as it lacks essential nutrients they need in their diet.
Yes, birds can eat Cheerios! In fact, they are a popular and nutritious treat for our feathered friends. However, there are some important things to keep in mind when feeding Cheerios to birds. Firstly, it's essential to choose plain or original Cheerios without any added flavors or sugary coatings.
Yes, birds can eat bread and can process it in small amounts. Wild birds are good at taking the right amount of food, and bread is no exception. Birds typically eat the food they need and move on searching for other types of foods. Still, it is recommended that bread be offered to birds in small amounts.
Offer peanut butter, raisins and more. What can birds eat? Birds visit backyard bird feeders for seed, peanuts, suet, mealworms and more, but you can also feed birds occasional treats from your kitchen. Just look in your pantry or refrigerator for these kitchen foods that birds will love.
Most types of oats that you would use to make porridge or oatmeal will be fine for offering to garden birds as long as they are not cooked. So, rolled oats, steel-cut oats, jumbo oats and pinhead oats are all good to feed to garden birds. Don't offer instant porridge pots or sachets.
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