To feed or not to feed? (and who to feed?) That is the question:

There are costs and benefits, winners and losers

Who wins? WE WIN! It's a lot of fun to have them come to our homes and
windows. It cheers up our dismal winters, might even prevent a few
suicides. It gets a lot of people to appreciate birds more than they ever
would otherwise. It hooks your visitors on birds that wouldn't otherwise
have come to appreciate them. People want to know what kind of birds they
are seeing, then buy bird books then get learn more and get hooked. More
bird enthusiasts hopefully means that when legislators want to turn the
Alaska National Wildlife Refuge into an oil well more people who know and
care that our shorebirds breed there will object. They may even care that it
harms the Spectacled Eiders they see in those books but that they never seen
here.

Feeding also usually helps the jays, chickadees, juncos, goldfinches and
siskins, house finchs, starlings, anna'a hummingbirds, eastern gray
squirrels, (and at night the norway and black rats) and other critters that
eat what we feed them. It also helps a few merlins and sharp-shinned hawks
and owls (feeding on the rats) that eat those that we directly and
unintentionally feed.

The result is that we usually end up with a higher population of many of
those critters than would occur in that habitat (usually already altered by
humans to the detriment of native diversity).

Who loses?

Jays, Eastern Gray Squirrels and rats raid bird nests. I don't know which
species fall victim most often, but I would expect that there are some
species we don't see as often anymore that are most vulnerable to this
predation. If any of you have info on this I would be interested.

I have been planting native plants througout my friends property to turn it
back into a more natural habitat. The squirrels and (possibly jays?) seem
to know just where my favorite trilliums and violets were planted and dig
them up to cache the peanuts that we so enjoy feeding the jays. Another
friend who has been doing similar native planting curses the squirrels that
his neighbor feeds peanuts to for the same reason.

The Purple Finch has become rare as the House Finch, (native only to the SW
US and Mexico), has become abundant and ubuquitous. Has the House Finch
been a factor? Another e-mail on this subject had a link to a study on this
I haven't read yet, but I suspect House Finches are a factor.

Rufous Hummingbirds have apparantly declined as the range of the Anna's has
expanded north, due apparantly to winter hummingbird feeding, and have
become quite common, at least in the metropolitan area. Are they in any way
responsible for the decline of the Rufous? I don't know, but I suspect so.
Do Anna's defend their territories against Rufous, or compete for limited
nectar? I'd like to know if and how Anna's may be replacing rufous, but I
still love seeing the Anna's.

In addition to habitat destruction, are Eastern Gray Squirrels an important
factor, in the rarity of native Douglas Squirrels in metropolitan areas and
in pushing the native Western Gray Squirrel to the edge of extirpation in
western WA?

We know that starlings replace bluebirds and martins, out competing them for
limited nest holes. Do chickadees outcompete anyone for their nest holes?

What other species lose out?

While Eugene Kreidler siting the mass extinction of Hawaiin birds says that
"birds" need a leg up, implying that feeding them is a good thing. It is
good for most of the species that eat what we feed them (and possibly bad
for a few that we feed, but who would be healthier if they ate natural
food).

but Kelly Cassidy writes:
Do you think any of the birds that went extinct in Hawaii would have been
saved by feeders? Are any of the currently endangered birds in Hawaii being
helped by feeders? Are there any endangered birds anywhere being helped by
feeders?

In ecology some species winning usually means some losing. When we say we
help "the birds" we might ask which birds we help and which other organisms
are hurt.

In the final analysis I think feeding birds, as a whole, is a good thing,
but it comes at a cost.

Stewart Wechsler


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