Bird
Feeding Myths
1. If you leave your bird feeders up during the winter,
birds will not migrate and freeze to death.
Most long-distance migrants that cannot survive the cold
weather, move in response to genetic and environmental forces. The lack
of food does not drive them away. In fact, their migration happens at
a time when there is a wealth of natural food available. On occasion,
you might see a lingerer who didn't made the journey with the rest of
the flock. They are the ones who need your help the most. They may survive
a little longer by having food and unfrozen water available. In addition,
there are many winter birds that need extra help. Especially when the
ground is covered with snow and foraging is difficult.
2. If a human touches a nest, a bird will detect their
scent and abandon their nests.
This myth has been handed down from generation to generation.
The fact is that human scent can not be detected by birds. However,
predators can and if you approach a nest too often, or too closely,
you may be leading a predator to the site. Birds may find your intrusiveness
offensive for many reasons, but one of them is not the way you smell.
3. Throwing rice at a wedding is outlawed because birds
eat it and it will swell up in their stomach and kill them or
cause them to exlode.
Not true. There is no law against using rice at weddings.
Furthermore, birds have no trouble digesting rice, or any other "expanding"
vegetable. rice is a grain. Grains, seeds and nuts are what birds have
survived on for centuries. Plenty of birds eat uncooked rice in the
wild. If you need a reason to avoid rice, birds will be more attracted
to bird seed which will entice them to "clean up the mess"
more quickly.
4. Birds can choke on peanut butter.
According to Bird Watcher's Digest, "This topic is
hotly debated, but there is no scientific evidence one way or the other.
Birds' bills do not have as much saliva as human mouths, so it is less
likely that the peanut butter will get gooey and stuck to the roof.
To be safe, it's smart to mix chunky peanut butter with whole oats,
raisins, cornmeal, and other ingredients to make it drier and more solid,
and thus less sticky when it enters a bird's bill." Peanut butter
is a great energy source for birds, especially in winter when birds
need high-protein foods for energy.
5. If I begin feeding birds and then remove the feeder,
the birds will starve.
While birds tend to stay around when you are consistant
with putting out food, they search for food in many places. The food
you serve is only a portion of what they eat. They also feed on berries
and insects. If you stop feeding them, whether it be that you went away
for vacation or stopped due to a problem with your feeder, they will
not go hungry. If you want to continue to attract the birds to your
feeder, fill them daily. Ask a neighbor to fill it while you are gone
away for more than a couple of days. If you have a problem with a feeder,
put up another one in it's place. Besides, the birds you are seeing
are probably not the same ones that were there yesterday.
6. Birds' feet will stick to metal perches.
Bird's legs and feet are made up of mostly tough tendons
which have little blood flow during cold weather. Furthermore, they
have no sweat glands in their feet so there is no moisture to freeze
onto the metal surface.
7. White Millet is a cheap filler seed
Ground-feeding birds like towhees, song sparrows, juncos,
and buntings prefer White Proso Millet. Much of the commercial mixes
use millet for filler and therefore leaves little room for anything
else. If you are trying to attract perch-feeding birds, the food of
choice is hulled sunflower meats. A good mix will contain just enough
millet for the ground-feeders to benefit from the perch-feeders' habit
of kicking out the seeds they don't like, but not so much that the perch
feeders will become discouraged.
8. The mixed seed you buy at a grocery store is bad
for the birds.
The type of bird you attract will depend on the type of
food you put out. Check out our list of Recommended
Bird Food to decide what food to to use to entice your favorite
bird. The biggest problem with cheap mixed seed is the filler they put
in. That's what make it so cheap. If you put out the cheap mix, you
will tend to attract more pesky birds than the cute little song birds
most people want to see. And you will have quite the weed garden from
all the seed the birds won't eat.
9. Tossing seed on the ground is the best way to feed
"ground feeding" birds such as cardinals, doves and sparrows.
Throwing bird seen on ground will attract ground feeding
birds, along with squirrels, rats, and other unwanted pests. In addition,
it is much more difficult to keep the ground clean. Ground feeders should
be washed and kept clean just like hanging feeders. In addition, they
should be filled with enough seed to be eaten in a day.
10. Birds won't eat Milo.
Actually, this depends on the area of the country you
live in. Red milo is a staple of western bird feeding, especially int
he Southwest where a variety of quail, doves, towhees, and sparrows
readily eat it. In the East and upper Midwest, birds don't seem to eat
milo near as much so any mixed seed with a large percentage of milo
will probably go to waste.
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