Reply to Please feed the birds! They have young ones and are hungry and tired. IF you love birds enter here..

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I hate to be the buzzkill, but.....

If you put out food, the bird population grows and becomes dependent on it. Then, if you ever move away or stop putting it out, they'll starve because now there's not enough food to go around. Especially in winter - some species will stop migrating if there is food available year-round. So if you stop filling the feeder, they suddenly have no food at the worst time of year.

Just something to keep in mind. [/quote]

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology begs to differ.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/analysis-do-bird-feeders-help-or-hurt-birds/ 
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/heres-what-to-f...r-summer-bird-feeder-visitors/ [/quote]

PP with the links again. To be clear, the first link doesn't address what happens when you go on vacation or move away. They say more research is needed on impacts on migratory species, but they don't hint at whether the impact could be positive or negative. They conclude with "We are still working to refine this analysis, but the take-home message so far is that species that visit bird feeders a lot tend to be doing very well."

Although Cornell doesn't mention moving away, I'd interpret this to mean that, if you feed birds for several generations, then you are probably helping increase the total species populations (except in species they mention, like Pinyon Jays, where the bigger problem is habitat loss). My guess is that if you move away, you might (or might not--many birds don't only feed at your feeder) hurt some individual birds. But on net you've increased the species population by helping more birds survive the winter.

The second link didn't work, but it was about what to feed your summer feeder visitors, not to stop doing it. It has some good advice about cleaning your feeders, setting them away from your windows, etc. So let's try again with the link: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/heres-what-to-feed-your-summer-bird-feeder-visitors/[/quote]

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