We all like to encourage birds and other wildlife into our gardens, don’t we? But do we all know how to care for wild garden birds properly?
I have a story to tell you…
Meet Scruffy. He’s a young Collared Dove who turned up in our garden just after New Year. Given his bedraggled appearance we could hardly miss him.
We immediately realised that Scruffy was very poorly. However, you can’t catch and seek care for a creature that can fly away from you before you even get close to it. We knew that we had to watch him, and we increased the frequency of the cat patrols that my husband puts himself on. We knew that Scruffy might be vulnerable, as he appeared to be weaker than the rest of his flock – in spite of the fact that he’s obviously quite high up in his flock’s pecking order. Usually a sick bird will be killed by its peers, but every day there’s Scruffy, standing tall in spite of looking like hell. We could see some kind of nasty injury, but obviously we couldn’t get close enough to even attempt to inspect it.
Scruffy’s personality is unique. Even if he didn’t look different I think we could still pick him out from the rest of his flock. Very much “Cock of the walk” with a distinctive way of standing fully upright and almost marching around the garden. A real hard nut, but not at all aggressive; the other Doves in his flock have always given him space.
Until yesterday. Yesterday was Scruffy’s last. My husband found him outside on the patio – alive, but so weak that he was lying there with both wings spread out on either side in an attempt to support his own weight, which had failed.
Scruffy spent a few hours warming up in a box in front of our double radiator. He had food and water, and we occasionally heard him moving around, munching and even squeaking. We took this as a good sign.
However, even somebody like myself – who is quite educated when it comes to our avian friends – doesn’t know it all. I decided that Scruffy was best off with the local wildlife vet, and so we took him there.
We had been home for less than an hour when the phone call came. Scruffy’s “injury” wasn’t inflicted by a predator or another bird. His crop had herniated and he had spent the last four weeks or more unable to digest seed. He had been starving to death, his issue wasn’t operable and so the vet had to do the honourable thing and euthanise him.
There is a suspicion that Scruffy’s crop herniated because he’d eaten something that he shouldn’t. Possibly dry bread, or even something too salty that somebody thought would be okay and put it out for the birds.
So here is a short list of do’s and don’ts:
DO:
Drain off fat from cooking/frying meat and allow it to harden into fat cakes. You can add leftover vegetables and chicken, seeds, dried fruit and approved berries to the mix.
Keep all feeders clean – empty and wash them regularly.
All meat should be finely chopped or – better yet – shredded or minced. Birds find it easier to digest.
Lard, dripping or suet is also good for birds, giving them the essential winter fat that they need in order to stay warm against the cold.
Buy approved bird feed from pet, garden and farm centres if you are unsure what to feed your garden birds.
Always make sure that your garden birds have a daily supply of fresh water.
DON’TS:
Never feed birds bread. It has no nutritional value and swells inside the birds’ crops before they can even try to digest it. This is probably what happened to Scruffy.
Salty foods are a big no-no. Gammon and heavily salted bacon are off the menu.
Don’t feed birds any nuts that are meant for human consumption. They have usually been roasted and salted and are unsuitable for our garden friends. Only use nuts that have been approved and are meant for wildlife.
No spiced foods. Also, pasta dries out and so your leftover lasagne will have the same effect on your winged friends as bread will – it will expand again on contact with any ingested water and cause tragic consequences.
Absolutely no vegetable oils or pizza crusts.
That is all that comes to mind for now, but I think that’s enough. If you’re unsure about anything else, please contact a bird centre (RSPB here in England; I don’t know about anywhere else) or a wildlife vet.
Scruffy kept himself so upright because of the herniation to his crop. We had no way of knowing, as you cannot – sadly – help a bird until it is, itself, completely helpless. Scruffy spent the last weeks of his life in terrible pain, both from the herniation and from starving to death in spite of eating.
Please. Do not be the person who kills a bird through ignorance. Perhaps what happened to Scruffy was something that was always going to happen to him anyway, but it could also have been down to somebody not knowing enough about what to feed birds. We will never know.
Sleep well, Scruffy. You are already sorely missed by the humans who tried their best to take care of you.
Aw this is so sad – I too get attached to the wildlife in my garden and I notice if I don’t see the robin for a few days. A few months back we had similar happen with a little sparrow. All we could do was put him in a box with food and water and keep him dry and safe from cats – alas he didn’t make it either. Poor birds, have it so hard in these cold months.
We don’t even know when this happened to Scruffy… the fact that he held his own for four weeks that we’re aware of says a lot about that bird’s spirit and will to live. A strong-willed little soul who thoroughly deserved the quiet and peaceful end that the vet gave him.
We’ll never forget the little guy; he made a real impact on both of our hearts
<3
We used to have ” resident”hummingbirds that we lovingly fed for years,but for some reason, they were absent last summer. By the way,hummingbirds are territorial, and they actually know they are being fed by humans. One time,we forgot to put fresh sugar syrup for them , and lo and behold, we saw our resident birds hovering just outside our sliding glass door, looking at us, as if telling us , “the food’s gone ! Where’s our food?”
What a lovely story – thank you for sharing!
Our English Robins are the same; if their favourite snack is gone due to other birds getting there first they will stand outside and make a real noise until more food appears
The OHP bird feeders (which are also unintentional squirrel feeders, but at least it amuses the Sisters at mealtimes when they all watch the squirrels) are all filled with the shop bought seed and nuts designed for wild birds. Which is good.
The Sisters also put out breadcrumbs as well – and when I say “crumbs” I really do mean crumbs. In fact it’s more like dust, so I suspect that that generally ends up falling into the grass and becoming soil rather than bird food.
Yes, I think you’re probably right there.
because we have lots of cats by me I put bird food out on my bedroom windowledge anyone who thinks there is a sparrow shortage will discover they are alive and well and living in huddersfield inbetween sparrows the blue tits sneak in for a quick nibble and if it quietens down later on the robin pops by at tea time, the magpies, crows and rooks don’t even try to investigate
*grin* we often joke that the so-called Sparrow decline is only because they’re all in our garden – we can see dozens at a time here on occasion!
Wow! I must confess my ignorance, as I always put bread crumbs out there for the birds. I’d never heard this was harmful to birds before as it always seemed to be encouraged, like giving bread to ducks, which we’ve always done as children. Thanks for the advice, though. I’m taking note. Sorry about Scruffy: at least you tried. <3
I believe that very fine crumbs are okay, but large chunks are not. It also depends on the type of bird – small birds can’t cope with something swelling in their little crops and rice is also a bad idea unless it’s been cooked thoroughly (Wood Pigeons will eat anything going, but you still need to be careful).
Tribble has posted a link to the RSPB site in this thread, which will give you more information. It’s shown me some things that I didn’t know, and I’m a member!
Hi Thanks for the info I am shocked and astounded we must sort out our garden menu immediately!
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There is a lot of good advice on what to feed garden birds here. Oddly they don’t mention bread at all.
Gemma, this was a very important post! Bravo to you to help keep all of us aware of do’s and do not’s with wild birds. It is such a sad note that people feed bread to birds of all sorts in parks and lakes. Bread is the worst thing to feed a bird… yet it seems to be prevalent every where we go!
Also, cats are major carriers of disease. I’m speaking of outdoor cats, or feral cats that do not get immunizations or quality care. Cats kill millions of birds each year, and most often if the bird is not immediately killed, it will eventually die of infection from the cat bite or wound.
We had that happen to a Collared Dove a couple of years back – D literally rescued it from the jaws of next doors’ cat. It survived – painfully – for four days.
There’s a massive debate going on concerning cat vs. bird – some say that cats are only doing what’s natural and that it’s all part of the food chain. The first part is true, but the second? Alive or dead, most cats only capture birds to play with them. If the poor thing’s still flapping it’s probably even more fun.
I didn’t know that about birds. I’m always putting old bread out. I think the dog mostly gets to it first, but I’ll make sure she does now. Unless the next article is going to be about how dogs can’t eat bread either.
Heheh, I’m fairly sure that dogs will eat anything, and the only thing I know to be harmful for dogs is human chocolate
A lot of wild birds are helpless during the winter, These are really nice tips you’ve shared. We must all make an effort in feeding these hungry little birds.