Many people feed wild birds, but did you know that there are ethical questions that are tied to doing so? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers great information about it here so you can make an educated decision:
With that said, if you do decide to feed wild birds, we ask that you take some steps to make sure to keep everyone healthy:
- Keep all feeders and waterers CLEAN! That means cleaning (daily whenever possible) with a bleach water mix. Disease transmission between birds is very common, and feeders/waterers can worsen this significantly. And if you have your own birds (indoor or outdoor), attracting wild birds can increase their chances of contracting illnesses that can be deadly.
- Beware of predators (domestic and wild alike). Feeders and waterers can create an unintentional hunting ground. Cat and dog-caught animals make up many patients we see every year.
- Beware of windows. Window strikes bring many patients to us annually, so placing feeders/waterers away from windows and/or putting decals on your windows to make it more obvious to the birds that they cannot fly through them can save lives.
- Put food away at night. Bird food will attract more than just birds, including critters like rats, mice, skunks, fox, raccoons, bears, and more! Making sure that you don’t leave the food out at night keeps everyone safe, as we don’t want to be teaching these mammals to come to people’s homes for food.
- Feed healthy food! What does this mean? Feeding high-quality foods that are intended for wild birds is key. One of the things we feed many of our wild bird patients as they are getting older and ready for release is something called “suet.”
Have you heard of suet before? It’s a high-fat, high-protein snack that many types of birds love! Suet is something that is for sale in most places that carry wild bird feeding supplies, but we actually make it in-house using this recipe:
- 2 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter
- 2 cups lard
- Heat in a pot until liquid
- Add 4 cups corn meal
- Add 4 cups quick-oats
- Add 2 cups flour
- Add 2 cups sunflower chips
- Pour into baking dish and let cool
- Cut into chunks for suet feeders
It might not sound like the most delicious thing to us humans, but this is a high-quality snack that our wild bird patients love.
