Am I the only one who thinks feeding birds bread is a bad idea?

Last Tuesday I was sitting on my back porch in Columbus watching my usual crowd of sparrows and cardinals when my neighbor came over with a bag of old white bread. She started tossing handfuls into my yard and the birds went crazy for it. I had to stop her because I know bread fills them up without giving them any real nutrition. It's like feeding kids candy for dinner. I told her politely that it can cause health problems for the birds and even mess up their growth if they rely on it. She got a bit defensive but I offered her some black oil sunflower seeds instead. She actually tried them and said her birds seemed to like it more. Has anyone else had to deal with a neighbor feeding the wrong stuff to the birds?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

kellyy954mo ago

Holding some crusts under water for a minute shows they float on top which mimics how waterfowl naturally scoop food, so bread actually changes their feeding instincts in a weird way I never thought about until someone pointed it out.

4

the_sarah4mo ago

Tbh the floating thing makes sense because waterfowl have that natural dabbling instinct where they tip forward and scoop. Bread just sits there bobbing on top like a floating snack bar, so they don't have to work for it the way they would with submerged plants or insects. Over time that could wire their brains to expect easy floating food instead of actual foraging behavior. Kind of like how feeding ducks bread nonstop makes them lazy about finding real nutrition.

10