Behavioural and health impacts of recreational wild bird feeding

Abstract

There were three primary aims of this research: 1) to determine how psittacine birds made use of an ad libitum supply of provisioned seed, 2) whether the intake of the provisioned seed modified the birds’ diet, and 3) whether birds associated with the activity were at risk of health impacts. The first study was an observational study of how two species of parrots—the Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans; CR) and the Australian King-Parrot (Alisterus scapularis; AKP)—used feeding sites (one in Queensland and one in Victoria, Australia), and their intake of provisioned seed. The second study assessed the impact of the provisioned seed on the CRs’ diet using isotopic niche modelling and Bayesian inference. The third study screened the CRs’ health to identify the prevalence of hyperlipidaemia and relative obesity (combined). The studies confirmed: 1) that there was considerable variation in the birds’ use of a feeding site and their intake of provisioned seed, a variable proportion of the birds made use of a feeding site at a low, moderate or high intensity (daily or daily/high daily durations) and it was likely that some birds had a level of dependency on the food supply; 2) it was likely that access to the provisioned food had modified a variable proportion of the CRs’ natural diet to the degree that they were consuming a diet similar to that of captive birds; 3) wild birds consuming provisioned seed were at risk of hyperlipidaemia or relative obesity. Despite the birds in this study having continued access to natural foraging resources within national parks, this project’s results demonstrate that recreational wild bird feeding places birds at risk of behaviour change (inc. dependency), diet modification (to the degree their diet reflects the diet of birds being fed in captivity), and health impacts–hyperlipidaemia/relative of obesity. Recreational wild bird feeding can interfere with, and harm, native birds