We need to talk about feeders...
- doncoombez
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
We are a nation of animal lovers, and a huge percentage of the UK (12.5m homes) feed wild birds in the garden, myself included. It's a lovely thing to do and brings us all much joy. Garden feeders help wild birds during winter, and during nesting, but all the latest research points to a massive problem.
Disease, not least of which is trichomonosis, is being spread through infected garden feeders with devastating effect. A review of the effect on the chaffinch population is alarming, in fact it is difficult to find words to describe the precipitous decline - disaster is the one that springs to mind, without any hyperbole.
A look a bull finch numbers and green finches demonstrate the same sort of horrendous decline. The impact is clear, and the irony is apparent - we are killing the birds we love.
So what can we do about it? Thankfully there are some things we can do. In particular, trichomonosis is spread through feeders when they are not cleaned regularly, with some other factors adding to the risk. For example wet food is more likely to spread the disease, or food that birds can walk over - faeces and broader species accessibility all adds to the risk.
One company, and at the time of writing, the only one I know of has attempted to address this. Finches Friends (link below) have created feeders that:
have an ingenious removable feeding station for easy cleaning (come with 2 to swap out and keep the feeder active)
limit the species that can feed at them
keep the food dry
They address many more issues, I highly recommend going onto their website and learning more. These feeders not only help protect our beloved birds, but they are the best built feeders I've ever encountered. The Rolls Royce of feeders.
Head on over and start helping the birds you love!
(I'm not affiliated with them or paid by them, I truly believe these are amazing products!)
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