Do Birds Become Dependent on Bird Feeders?

BirdNote®
Do Birds Become Dependent on Bird Feeders?
Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote.

As you gain experience with birds, you’ll start to notice lots of bird behaviors and maybe draw your own conclusions about why they’re acting a certain way. But it’s also important to check your understanding from time to time, because there are a few persistent myths about bird behavior out there. Here’s one: feeding birds makes them dependent on the sunflower seeds you put out for them.

In short, it’s just not true. Even if you see your local birds ravenously eating at your feeder, those same birds are also finding wild sources of food from elsewhere at other times of the day.

Birds also won’t be heartbroken if you take down your feeder. They have plenty of other places to get their next meal and will adapt their behavior quickly.

That said, during cold snaps in winter, it can be very hard for birds to find food. And that’s the one time that a humble bird feeder could transform from an extra source of food to a lifeline for hungry birds. So while birds aren’t dependent on food from feeders long-term, providing birdseed in the depths of winter could really help out your feathered friends during a tough time.

For BirdNote, I’m Mark Bramhill.

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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by TK
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote December 2024
Narrator: Mark Bramhill

ID# feeder-08-2024-12-16    feeder-08

Reference:
Project Feederwatch - Can birds become dependent on bird feeders? https://feederwatch.org/learn/feeding-birds-faqs/can-birds-become-dependent-on-bird-feeders/