Common Myths

General Tips:

• Store Bought Bird Food May Not Be As Effective.
• Birds Will Not Die If You Stop Feeding.
• Birds Can Eat As Much in the Summer As in the Winter.

There is undoubtedly no other recreational use of wildlife that is based more on tradition and less on facts than wild bird feeding. This has resulted in many fallacies having been adopted as fundamental truths guiding this endeavor. For example, the "golden rule of bird feeding," that once you start feeding you must continue or the birds will die is unquestionably a profound exaggeration yet it is still repeated frequently in articles written about bird feeding.

Perhaps the biggest myth is that winter is the only appropriate time to feed birds. Research results indicate that seed eating birds seek artificial seed sources much more intensely in, summer than they do in winter! Certainly anyone who feeds year-round recognizes that they often have a very large consumption of food in summer.