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Hi All,
Having recently compiled all the data from the
21 years of COG's Garden Bird Survey, I have thought about this but decided
against writing a lot about it in my book I published on the subject. Mainly
because I don't have hard data on this aspect and so didn't wish to go into that
question too deeply, along with data on the population trends of those birds
over the 21 years. One of the questions that came up in enquiries though is:
"does feeding birds impact on the number around the area?" I think
that whether you as one individual do or don't, makes relatively little
difference. Mainly because so many other people already do and birds are so
mobile. That is what I believe from Canberra, it may be that other cities don't
have as many people who like to put out bird food. It is like whether or not you
have a cat probably makes little difference, as if you don't, the chances are
there is a cat or two belonging to someone, who will infiltrate your area.
One thing that is noticeable is that regardless
of how much artificial food is provided (and that is probably more than enough),
there is still no shortage of birds feeding naturally as well as or in between
supplemental feeding by people.
Philip
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