There is no more beautiful garden scene than a great tit carefully washing itself in a birdbath. He quickly drags his head through the water several times. It splashes the water with its flapping wings. First the water droplets roll over the fat layer on the feathers, but after a few thorough immersions the water is everywhere.
The entire process takes place in no time. After a few seconds, the great tit shakes the large drops from between its feathers. A moist, swollen black-yellow ball remains. The great tit is a bit poorer in dirt, but possibly richer in disease, because all those birds leave dirt behind: a container full of bacteria.
See up close
Now that the mercury is dropping again, the birds in and around their garden need a helping hand, some nature lovers believe. In winter, food is not plentiful in towns and cities. Some people hang up fat balls or peanut garlands, others place a handful of seeds on a saucer in the garden. The avid garden birdwatchers install bird feeders, hanging feeding silos and water baths. Everything to help the birds through the winter.
“It is a piece of nature experience that comes close to your home,” says Timo Roeke, senior nature conservationist at the Bird Protection Society. “We have many life forms in the Netherlands and also quite a few mammals. But we never actually see those animals. That’s why birds are so popular. Birds are everywhere, they are easy to see and they make a lot of noise.”
To see the birds even better and experience nature up close, many people decide to feed or give water to birds. Since the corona crisis, this hobby has only become more popular, scientists wrote last August in the online magazine Plos One. “In a garden it is very easy to attract birds to you. You can observe birds from a very safe, warmer position. That also gives a nice feeling: you have the feeling that you are helping those birds.”
Water pool in the savannah
For the same money, the garden birdwatchers help the birds from the rain into the drip. During the corona period, busy places such as a concert hall or a club posed a high risk of infection for people. These places were therefore the first to be closed by national measures. Feeding places pose just as much of a risk to birds.
Roeke: “Not all species come together. There are colony birds, such as the house sparrow, but there are also species such as the great tit or the blackbird. These are very individual birds. A feeding place becomes like a water hole in the savannah. Many birds come together that would not have naturally – I mean pre-feeder – encountered each other.”
Feeding places in gardens are a battlefield, especially for greenfinches. Among the usually solitary birds there is ‘yellow’, caused by the parasitic unicellular Trichomonas gallinae. Infected greenfinches get infections in the beak cavity, throat and esophagus. This makes them drowsy and has difficulty eating and breathing. Ultimately, the green and yellow finches die from starvation or suffocation.
As a result, the population of greenfinches in the United Kingdom has increased in ten years dropped by as much as two-thirds. In the Netherlands, yellow is less deadly, although it is still one of the main causes of death for greenfinches. Pigeons, birds of prey and magpies also suffer from it.
Eating and pooping
The fact that yellow hits the greenfinch so hard, and not the pigeon or the magpie, is due to the eating habits of these (and other) seed eaters. “Such a bird takes a seed in its mouth and that seed goes around a few times in its beak,” Roeke explains. The hard skin on the outside peels off the bird. A seed eater is only interested in the inner seed. The peel eventually ends up back at the feeding place, but has been in the mouth.
Valentina Caliendo is a veterinarian at the Dutch Wildlife Health Center (DWHC) and conducts research into the spread of bird diseases. She knows exactly how feeding tables become a breeding ground for bacteria and viruses. Caliendo mainly sees feeding boards where birds can sit and wander around for a while as a problem.
“The birds can poop here among their food. These are the most dangerous places when it comes to infectious diseases. Especially when these places are busy.” The pathologist also warns against bird baths, as many diseases remain in the water.
A garden bird with bird flu
The yellow is not the only disease that thrives on feeding grounds. For example, there is salmonella, a bacterial infection that also spreads through bird food through feces. Furthermore, the DWHC regularly receives great tits and other birds with growths around the head or legs, caused by the fowlpox virus.
And what about bird flu? Since 2020, bird flu has had an unprecedented outbreak among poultry and wild birds. “So far, garden birds have not been affected by bird flu. The chance that a garden bird will get bird flu is therefore small,” Caliendo clarifies. “The chance is not zero, but it is very small. We are not currently concerned about bird flu in garden birds”
Hygienic feeding
Apart from bird flu, visiting a garden bird seems to open Pandora’s box. “If such a feeding place is not cleaned properly,” says urban ecologist Roeke. By cleaning regularly, supplementary feeders can easily prevent the accumulation and spread of diseases.
“If you clean the feeding table with boiling water once every five days, you significantly reduce the risks. The same applies to such a water bowl, which is also easy to clean. Empty them, pour boiling water in, brush thoroughly and you’re done. We call that hygienic supplementation.”
According to Caliendo, a more thorough cleaning is needed. “If a sick bird has actually eaten from the feeding place, rinsing with boiling water is not enough. Food left out for four to seven days should be thrown away. Wash the feeding area with warm soapy water and rinse with 10 percent bleach solution.” Caliendo’s message to bird lovers is: “If you wouldn’t eat it, then you shouldn’t let your birds eat it.”
Bird fauna in flora
If it takes so much effort to feed hygienically, isn’t it better to let birds provide their own food? That goes a step too far for Roeke: “If it is very cold and there is not enough food to be found, then it is necessary.” Garden birds have been doing poorly in recent years and this is partly due to food shortages.
“Many people buy exotic plants at the garden center and place them in their garden. Unlike native plants, these exotics bear few seeds in winter. These seeds are not always eaten by our birds. The avifauna no longer matches the flora.”
Hygienic supplementary feeding is therefore possible, and even necessary, as long as the city does not provide enough food in winter. “But just think carefully: when is the right time, what am I going to feed and how am I going to feed it?” Roeke recommends garden bird watchers. “If you do that a little bit well, then you are helping such a bird.”
Also read:
Help birds through the winter. But not spring.
Who doesn’t have them hanging in the garden: fat balls, peanut streamers and seed containers for the garden birds. Kind intentions, but according to bird veterinarian Jan Hooimeijer we sometimes do more harm than good.
2023-12-26 21:00:27
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