Bird feeders are meant for backyard birders' enjoyment and to help birds find an easy, reliable and convenient source of food, but they can also be dangerous, even fatal, if care isn't taken to ensure the feeders are safe and properly used to benefit the birds. Fortunately, backyard birders who are aware of how bird feeders threaten birds can easily make their feeders safe for any feeding flock.
How Feeders Can Hurt Birds
Depending on the feeder design and how, where and when it is used, bird feeders can threaten birds in different ways.
- Disease: A feeder contaminated with feces or visited by a sick bird can quickly become a threat to an entire backyard flock. Many bird diseases spread through droppings or direct or indirect contact, and when dozens of birds visit the same feeder, they can all be at risk.
You Can Help: Clean bird feeders regularly, and keep the area around the feeder as clean as possible. Taking feeders down if a sick bird is noticed can help the flock disperse until the threat passes.
- Window Collisions: Feeders positioned near windows can greatly increase the number of birds that will hit that window when they fly away, possibly trying to evade a predator or mistaking the window's reflection for shelter. Ideally, feeders should be closer than five feet to a window, or further than 10 feet away to give birds room to maneuver.
You Can Help: In addition to proper feeder placement, take steps to prevent bird window collisions with decals and other techniques to break up a window's reflection, or use screens to cushion the blow from any colliding birds.
- Backyard Hawks: Backyard hawks such as the sharp-shinned hawk and Cooper's hawk will quickly learn that a concentrated flock of birds is feeding in one area, and they will stake out feeders in hopes of getting an easy meal.
You Can Help: Provide a nearby brush pile or bird-friendly landscaping to give feeding birds sufficient cover to take shelter from hunting hawks.
- Outdoor Cats: Just like birds of prey, outdoor cats will stake out bird feeders in hopes of catching a meal or toy. Both outdoor pets and feral cats are a major threat to backyard birds, often hunting out of instinct rather than hunger.
You Can Help: Always keep pet cats indoors, and take steps to discourage feral cats from coming near your bird feeders.
- Poor Nutrition: Even the best feeders can be harmful to birds if they're filled with the equivalent of avian junk food. Bread is bad for birds, and other kitchen scraps should only be offered as occasional treats rather than a constant food source.
You Can Help: Choose quality birdseed and offer a wide range of other nutritious foods for your backyard birds, including suet, nectar and nuts.
- Wasp Nests: Wasps, bees and hornets will readily visit hummingbird feeders to feast on the easy nectar, but these stinging insects can actually hurt, even kill, hummingbirds. Even if the insects do not directly harm the hummingbirds, they can crowd out the birds and keep them from feeding easily.
You Can Help: Use different techniques to discourage insects from hummingbird feeders, and take care to remove nearby nests if wasps or hornets are a consistent problem.
- Lack of Food: While birds will feed on many natural food sources, they can come to rely on feeders in urban and suburban areas. If the feeders are not reliably filled, the birds can suffer from malnutrition and starvation when natural food sources dwindle, particularly in the winter months.
You Can Help: Always refill feeders promptly so birds have a reliable food source to visit. If frequent refilling is inconvenient, investigate larger bird feeders that will not need frequent refills, and add seed-bearing flowers or fruit trees to your landscape for natural, renewable foods.
- Unsafe Feeders: Old, broken feeders can directly endanger birds with peeling paint, sharp edges and broken parts. Birds can become stuck as they try to reach seed, or they can be tangled in hanging wires or other loose parts of the feeder.
You Can Help: Inspect feeders carefully whenever you clean or refill them, and make any necessary repairs immediately. Using weather baffles or placing feeders in sheltered locations can help protect them from excessive wear.
Whether you are planning to use new bird feeders, put out bird baths or set up bird houses, always plan your bird-friendly backyard features with the birds' safety in mind to keep the items you mean to help birds from inadvertently causing harm instead.
Photo – Red-Shouldered Hawk at a Bird Feeder © nophun201
