If people want to feed wild birds living in the city - pigeons, sparrows, ducks, gulls - then they most often throw bread to them. But there is a common opinion that bird bread is harmful. We decided to figure out if this is true.
Feeding birds is unacceptable with bread, write online. Some media indicate that bread is literally Killing Thousands of birds. Ducks, pigeons and sparrows They promise indigestion, joint diseases, obesity or, conversely, malnutrition-and all because of the bear service from a person.
Apparently, the rumor about the dangers of bird bread came from the UK. It all started with a message from the Royal Poultry Society in 2008. In any case, about this speaks Member of the Ural Ornithological Society Nina Sadykova, explaining where the belief about the dangers of bread came from. “We must understand that Great Britain is the country of the winning huddling, where almost all residents are lovers and experts in birds. The scale of top dressing of wild birds there is not comparable with Russian, and the industry is very developed, which provides bird lovers with everything necessary for attracting and observing birds, including “correct” mixtures for feeding, ”she said in interview Ural media.
In 2008, the Royal Society really asked Do not feed the birds with bread, because it is unhealthy food. But already in the next, 2009, on the website of the company appeared The guide about what food from the human diet can still be fed birds. Bread is included in this list.
“Birds can digest all types of bread, but ideally it should be only one of the components of a diverse diet. Bread does not contain proteins and fats necessary for birds, so it can turn out to be an empty filler of the stomach. Although bread is not harmful to birds, try not to give it in large quantities, since its nutritional value is relatively small, ” - Explained Specialists.
Other ornithologists Confirm: Bread is not the most useful food for birds (as, by the way, for people), but they digest it perfectly. Health problems can begin when birds - for example, city ducks - get used to the frequent visits of people and cease to get food themselves, fully relying on granted bread.
In 2010, the Daily Mail tabloid released A detailed story about the flagrant case: the caretaker of the park in the county of Sasssex scolded the mother of two boys for the family fed ducks with bread. “What could be more useful than to take the children to the pond to feed the ducks? It seems that you can’t do this anymore without life, ”the heroine of the text was indignant. History Picked up and other journalists.
The myth of the danger of bread led to the fact that in 2019 in the park of one of the cities of the English derbishir appeared A mysterious appeal on behalf of the ducks: “They stopped feeding us, because they think that bread will harm us, and now we are dying of hunger without your bread!” In the "Country of the Victorious Birdvotching" photo of the signs was encircled, about the poster and the scandal around it Wrote Large media.
In scientific work The Institute of Ornithology of Edward Gray (part of the University of Oxford), held in the late 1980s, studied the difference between city and rural swans. It turned out that city swans have weaker muscles than those living in nature, outside close contact with man. The researcher explained this by the fact that city birds eat a lot of bread, and in it there is not enough protein. Nevertheless, in 2019, the British public organization for the protection of swans Swan Support deployed a campaign for feeding birds with bread. Bird defenders toldThat people, having heard about the dangers of bread, stopped feeding the birds at all, and the swans literally die of hunger without support.
And people are ready to feed birds with bread - this is the most affordable and convenient option. In 2016 veterinarians StudiedAs the inhabitants of Amsterdam feed birds. It turned out that 68% of all proposed treats is precisely bread, another 29% are the remnants of another human food. Not a single person who was met by scientists offered to the birds special food in its purest form.
Here and now, to feed on bread, of course, the benefit for a particular bird, is said in the study. But such a diet also has disadvantages. “The nutritional value of the proposed food does not correspond to the needs of wild species of birds and can lead to malnutrition if it is consumed without natural food,” the scientists confirmed. And they also noted that people often scatter as much food as birds cannot be mastered. Pieces of bread remain on the street. “They can benefit certain species of birds, but can also support the populations of rodents,” the scientific work says. Researchers added that the populations of pigeons and gulls most benefit from the crumbling bread of citizens.
It may be too late to worry about the fact that birds eat human food. For example, city seagulls are used to life with people so much that they are guided by them in search of food. According to research The Center for Ecology and the Preservation of the Vyes of the University of Exeter, silver seagulls from the city regions of southeastern England observe people and use their behavior as a hint.
Not true
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please inform us of this, highlighting the text with an error and by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
