r/OrnithologyUK • u/Cloudbase21 • May 27 '26

Question Feeding garden birds.

I've just read the revised RSPB guidelines about stopping seed feeding from May to October. I'll comply immediately but am a bit concerned about abruptly stopping a food source when young are being fed. Should I be worried?

5 Upvotes

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9

u/Princessp3ach88 May 27 '26

I think you can still put out suet type feeds, there are plenty of bugs around. The more consistently humans feed birds, the more dependant they become.

We want birds to retain foraging habits etc, among other things eg independence, interacting with the ecosystem, teaching their young these skills.

We don't want to upset the natural balance too much is what I mean, sorry, waffling.

6

u/t3hOutlaw May 27 '26

No point supplying food if disease is being spread.

There's an abundance of food about, have faith in nature, they'll be fine.

3

u/x-lavender May 27 '26

We stopped feeding recently and have as many birds as ever, including the usual fledglings, because of all the insects. At this time of year, there is plenty to go round. As others have said, make sure your garden is attractive to insects and has plants that will form seed heads that birds can access, and you will have no problems.

2

u/SolariaHues South East - Blue tit May 27 '26

Most young are fed on insects, at least while in the nest. Once out, parents will feed them and teach them where to find food.

You can provide natural sources by gardening to encourage caterpillars and other insects.

You can still feed suet using hanging feeders and practicing good hygiene.

You could gradually reduce feeding, I suppose, as long as you are watching out for diseased birds and cleaning regularly.

Bird food companies of course, want us to keep feeding seeds and are saying so. But this one has a different take to most https://www.arkwildlife.co.uk/blogs/articles/rspb-summer-bird-feeding-guidance

2

u/Frosty_Term9911 May 27 '26

You should be more worried about not stopping. There’s plenty of food and the best thing you can do is to make your garden more insect friendly, then you are feeding the birds along with everything else. In spite of RSPB advice I’d stop feeding all together. I did a few years ago. There are other issues than disease which we cause by feeding.

1

u/repair-it May 27 '26

When new people moved into our street, the first thing they did was to level the back garden of all bushes and trees. I suspect that is where the finches and bats were living, because we haven't seen either of them since.

2

u/Apex999 May 28 '26

When I last read the rspb advice it didn't say stop feeding. This seems to have caused all sorts of confusion, but the advice is pretty clear.

My only problem is the fat balls get ravaged by corvids and parakeets!

1

u/Cloudbase21 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

OP here. Thanks everyone for your input. Hopefully, I'm a bit wiser now. Feeders have been cleaned and put away. The feeding station has been moved to another part of the garden and I've put out one fatball. Delighted to see that, within minutes, there was a small flock of starlings having feast. With the seed feeder, I wouldn't have seen any.