Belinda, I took the line I quoted from the BOCA policy to mean that there's
little evidence for any birds developing a dependency, rather than meaning that
there's evidence that only a few birds do. I didn't intend the story to be used
as proof of anything, although I do appear to have worded it exactly that way.
I was just thinking more along the lines of "check this fat little kooka out".
I do doubt though, that any bird can possibly get that fat without human help.
What do your percentages mean? That 10% of birds in Qld have a feeding
dependency, or that all birds in Qld have a 10% dependency? I assume it's only
for urban birds, but either way, it's higher than I expected.
Peter Shute
________________________________
From: Belinda Cassidy
Sent: Thursday, 3 June 2010 10:55 AM
To: Peter Shute
Cc: Dave Torr;
Subject: Re: Subject: [Birding-Aus] Impact of bird-feeding on clutch size
The articles says: ``I'm almost certain this porky kookaburra found a resident
or two who've been treating her with sausages''
I mean its interesting, and something to think about. But being `almost' sure
of the cause of obesity, in only *one* case , doesn't refute the studies
conducted around the world that show that dependency on supplement feeding is
around 10% in QLD, Australia, to up to 25% in colder countries.
On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 8:45 AM, Peter Shute
<<>> wrote:
The BOCA policy mentions that "There is very little empirical evidence for
birds developing dependency on
supplementary feed", and I've heard that before (possibly from the same
source). But it doesn't appear to be the case for this bird:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/the-other-side/sausage-addicted-kookaburra-too-fat-to-fly/story-e6frfhk6-1225872729208
You probably only need to read the URL to get the gist of the story.
Peter Shute
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> <>
> <m("vicnet.net.au","birding-aus-bounces");">>]
> On Behalf Of Dave Torr
> Sent: Tuesday, 1 June 2010 8:56 AM
> To: Belinda Cassidy
> Cc: <>
> Subject: Re: Subject: [Birding-Aus] Impact of bird-feeding on
> clutch size
>
> BOCA has recently been researching the effects of
> supplementary feeding and our policy on it is now available
> as
> http://boca.org.au/dmdocuments/brochures_2010_05_policy_on_bir
> d_feeding.pdf
>
> On 31 May 2010 17:38, Belinda Cassidy
> <<>> wrote:
>
> > 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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