The Writers Voice
The World's
Favourite Literary Website
Birdfeeders -- More Harm Than Good?
by
Gregory J. Rummo
Editor's Note: to see photos, go to this online version:
http://www.geocities.com/gregoryjrummo/forthebirds.htm
January 20,
2003
“I FEED the birdies in the park, they never get
suspicious.
And when they get nice and fat, boy are they
delicious.”
If I were a betting man, I’d wager that on most
days, Ira and Sandy Grindlinger, the owners of Wild
Birds Unlimited on Route 17 in Paramus, would
chuckle over that little tune from an old recording
of corny songs that, for whatever reason, is stuck
in my head since childhood.
But not on this day.
“Here we are feeding, photographing and enjoying
our little feathered friends, and along comes this
article trying to destroy all the pleasure we
derive from that,” Grindlinger said.
The article to which he was referring appeared on
the front page of The Wall Street Journal on
December 27.
Written by James P. Sterba, “American Backyard
Feeders May Do Harm to Wild Birds,” characterized
bird feeding enthusiasts as misguided and selfish
in their efforts to offer birds a helping hand.
The article began by laying this guilt trip on the
reader: “Last year, Americans spent $2.6 billion on
birdseed. That's more than twice as much as they
spent on prepared baby food, and two and a half
times as much as they spent on food for needy
nations.”
Sterba then went on to explain why all of this love
and money is misdirected.
“Attracting wild birds to feeders spreads disease,
aids predators such as house cats, and lures the
birds close to houses and roads where tens of
millions of them fly into windows and cars. House
cats and hawks treat feeders as fast-food outlets,
snatching birds from perches or the ground below.
Birdseed attracts other mammals, too, and not just
squirrels. Chipmunks, rats, raccoons, skunks and
even bears feed on seed at night. That in turn
prompts bird-loving homeowners to summon companies
that trap or kill the intruders.”
To the bird feeding enthusiast it was as if the
coal miner’s canary had just fallen off the perch.
Can it really be true that we are killing them
softly with compassion?
Hardly.
“As an avid bird enthusiast, you may very well have
had the same initial reaction that I had when I
first saw the headline which is to say, shock,”
Grindlinger said. “But Sterba got a lot of facts
wrong. He is, after all, a professor of ethics, not
an ornithologist.”
This isn’t sour grapes on Grindlinger’s part
because he earns a living selling bird seed and
feeders. He had done some of his own research and
provided me with a copy of the response to The Wall
Street Journal article from Drs. John W.
Fitzpatrick, the Director of Cornell Laboratory of
Ornithology and Andre A. Dhondt, the Program
Director for Bird Population Studies.
The two
ornithologists explained, “The article was at best
patchy in its coverage of scientific questions
involving bird-feeding and failed to present any of
the distinctly positive aspects of this growing
hobby. Although he quoted figures from the Cornell
studies of backyard bird mortality, Mr. Sterba
missed two crucial points repeatedly emphasized by
the principal author of those studies (Dr. Erica
Dunn, now at the Canadian Wildlife Service, and
widely considered to be among North America's
leading experts on bird population biology):
"...bird feeding is not having a broad-scale
negative impact on bird populations" and "...bird
feeding does not cause mortality to rise above
natural levels through exposing birds to unusual
danger from window collisions, disease, or
predation"
In addressing Sterba’s claim that bird feeders
contributed to the rapid spread of conjunctivitis
that killed off large populations of House Finches,
Fitzpatrick and Dhondt said, “[Sterba] failed to
mention that the House Finch itself was introduced
to the east coast several decades ago. Explosive
population growth of this highly gregarious bird
throughout eastern U.S. made the species unusually
vulnerable to a common bacterium, to which native
bird species had long since become resistant. …The
epidemic was not present among any native bird
species common at bird feeders in the same region
during the same period, and has failed to spread in
western North America, where the House Finch itself
was native.”
“Feeding and attracting the birds is a wonderful
hobby that is fun, educational, and relaxing,”
Grindlinger explains. “In fact, bird feeding has
been called ‘nature's antidote to stress.’ The
birds are magical in many ways, and they enrich our
lives every day. For example, after the tragedy of
September 11, many people turned to birds and
nature for some measure of comfort and relief.”
This is good news because as I look out the window
I realize I have a couple of birdfeeders to fill.
Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist. Read
all of his columns on his
homepage,
www.GregRummo.com. E-Mail Rummo at
GregoryJRummo@aol.com
Critique this work
Click on the book to leave a comment about this work
