Laurie,
Thanks for the article; I provide supplement bird feed for several species
myself, so I always appreciate reading new research .
Its interesting to wonder why these birds are called `Great Tits'. I can't
believe I have to use that term, lol.. I wonder if Google will net-nanny me
for referring them by name? Is that why you sent a link rather than
embebding the article? I am going to refer to them as `birds' because its
kind of weird to call them by the correct name.
Anyway, its also interesting to wonder why the birds with supplement food
had worse hatching success than the ones who weren't .
One thing that springs to mind is Beef tallow and peanut cake don't have a
lot of calcium in them (for egg shell development). They are insectivores,
which usually get a lot of calcium from the exoskeletons of bugs, so I am
not sure that the food provided was right for them. It also sounds a bit fat
rich too.
Normally birds are canny enough to sort these kinds of things out, but
perhaps the supplement feed attracted too many birds to the area, and the
supplement feed became more important than it would have been otherwise?
I've only seen this happen in Australia with crows, who have a tendency to
invade any area with supplement food, to the detriment of breeding pairs.
I'd be interested in hearing other thoughts?
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