I am glad to see a discussion of the merits of feeding birds. I have always been loathe to bring up the subject among birders because there seems to be such a uniform perception that feeding is beneficial.

I feed very little anymore, usually just a couple of weeks in spring migration, and that for entirely selfish reasons. When I was putting out sunflower seed in the winter, most of my customers were chickadees and Steller's Jays. I live in a rural area and don't see many finches in mid-winter. I have noticed that the chickadees coming to the feeder are often part of a mixed flock, and while the chickadees and nuthatches take seed or suet, I have never seen the Brown Creepers take anything I have offered. This made me wonder if perhaps the feeders created a disadvantage for the creepers, by forcing them to forage in my yard while the remainder of the mixed flock was frequenting the feeder. I wondered if my yard was poorer habitat, or if the mixed flocks spent more time around my feeder than they would in another patch of real estate, thus reducing foraging opportunity for the creepers.

These are just questions, and are obviously very difficult to evaluate. But I can't think of any species of concern that has ever come to my feeders. I think it is possible that feeding just builds up the populations of the feeder species, perhaps at the expense of other birds. And I look forward to any research on the issue...

Lisa Hardy
Kingston, ID