Well I support and wouldn't wish to diminish someone's developing appreciation
of bird study - but I'm a bit negative towards this behaviour with wild birds.
As described: "I went armed with a small mixture of shiny blue things to see
what (if any) reaction they got". I think we would be able to predict the
response already. For three other reasons: Over supply of attractive objects
would have to impact on the birds' behaviour, I'm not sure how but maybe induce
increased competition for birds that like to collect these things. Although not
stated as being used, there can be a risk of some things like plastic rings, if
not cut open, and other man- made non breaking objects getting tangled in a
bird's mouth, wing, feet, etc. It is not common but such things can kill birds.
Lastly although likely to be a drop in the bucket, relative to all the other
crap dropped by people, this practice will inevitably be using birds
(unintentionally) as an additional source of littering the forest.
Philip
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