Should City-Dwellers Feed the Urban Birds?

A while ago, I was filling up the bird-feeder, when the philosophical question popped up in my head: Is it ethical to feed the birds?

Most people, I think, would say yes immediately. But think about where that bird seed came from: large fields of chemically-sprayed swaying sunflowers which totally destroyed the surrounding habitat for other creatures. Many birds would have starved when the previously forested area was clear-cut. Many more will die for farmland. For this reason, it is much better to avoid supporting these operations. Besides, who knows what sort of toxic chemicals commercial sunflower seeds expose your backyard birds to?

I stopped re-filling the bird feeder after that-- after all, it doesn't make any sense to take away an entire ecosystem to give to a few backyard birds (no matter how beautiful and important those birds are)!

I can imagine the complaints from people already... "but I like watching birds in my yard" and "but those birds will all die out if we don't feed them", etc. Well, don't worry about your backyard birds. They are well-accustomed to finding food for themselves. If you still want to attract them to your yard and give them a nutritional boost, however, you can follow a few of these suggestions:

• Grow native plants on your lawn. Black-eyed Susans in Ontario, for example, will attract many birds. You can always grow sunflowers, too (where did you think sunflower seeds came from, eh?). :)



Black-eyed Susans



• Toss your leftovers into the garden. If the birds don't get them, the urban wildlife will-- and if that doesn't happen, it will naturally compost. My city has a composting system, but if yours doesn't, why not set up a bin for you to throw things in to bring outside later? The birds will thank you for it! (I threw a pear core into the garden one morning, and a few hours later, I saw a squirrel running off with it down the fence... It's a lot better than sending it to the landfill or some fertilizer company.)
• If you are completely adamant about filling your bird-feeder, at least use organic sunflower seeds!

Tell me what you think about eco-friendly ways of feeding the birds!