In Defense of Nature

 

Condon’s Corner

Feed the Birds, But Educate Yourself First

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved

Suet blocks help a variety of birds, such as this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, to obtain the calories they need for survival. © Marlene A. Condon 

[Published March 31, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia, and April 2, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.]

Helping Birds and Other Wildlife

Over the years, wildlife professionals have frowned upon people who feed birds and perhaps other kinds of wildlife in their yards. The reasons for this attitude are many.

 

These folks worry about the spread of disease when birds are constantly in close contact with each other. They also are concerned that folks will provide food meant for people that may be unhealthful to wildlife.  Additionally, these animals could then become habituated to humans and over time act aggressively towards people when they want food. If that situation occurs, the animals would then need to be killed. (Wildlife removal services must destroy critters taken away.)

Yet the reality is that birds and even wild mammals could use a bit of human help these days. You don’t need to look far to see that we have covered the land with office and apartment buildings, grocery and other kinds of stores, or houses with yards that are mowed and “cleaned up” so much that no natural foods exist for our wildlife.

Making your yard inhospitable to as many critters as possible should never be viewed as good because our environment depends upon wildlife to keep it functioning properly for our benefit. People often overlook this reality.

We need plant eaters to limit the numbers of plants so the plants will not be overcrowded and become diseased.  We require predators to limit the numbers of other kinds of animals, so they are not overcrowded, which also leads to disease. And we need a variety of plants to serve as food themselves for wildlife or to make seeds or fruits for critters to eat.

It’s not difficult for folks to assist wildlife, though. Most yards are landscaped with only beauty in mind, but choosing trees and shrubs that also support wildlife provides the additional interest of getting to view such critters right outside your windows! It’s not hard to find out which plants support wildlife; any local library will have a section of books on this subject. [The Nature-friendly Garden: Creating A Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People was written by me and I provided the photographs for it.]

 

Thus, we need to invite wildlife to our properties so our environment can function well, but we also need to help these critters to be safe while there, by—for example—limiting bird collisions with windows.

 

I once worked in a building with large office windows lining both sides and both stories of the workplace. The inside offices were small, so many of them ran down each side of the building, and each and every office had a very large window to bring light inside. Worse yet was the huge glass-way lining the walkway that led to the upstairs library.

Sky and trees around the building were reflected in all that glass, so it wasn’t the least bit unusual to find dead or injured birds on the ground alongside the building. The United States Geological Survey [USGS] estimates that “up to two billion birds are killed each year in the United States due to collisions with glass…”

https://www.usgs.gov/labs/bird-banding-laboratory/science/bird-window-collisions

According to the USGS website mentioned above, simple, inexpensive, and attractive ways exist “to help prevent any type of bird collision by making windows more visible to birds...For low-cost, temporary methods, individuals can make and hang a paracord bird curtain or create decorative patterns using tempera paint and stencils…”  Please visit the site for much more information.

 Also, the threat of cat predation on wildlife has continued for innumerable decades, but it shouldn’t be such a difficult problem to fix. It’s simply a matter of keeping cats indoors instead of letting them roam freely outdoors. It’s puzzling that people who supposedly care about their cats would insist that they should be allowed outdoors when the threat of their pet being run over and killed is extremely high. When I was growing up, neither cats nor dogs were expected to be kept inside, and indeed, several of the cats in our family were killed in just this manner.

 A little education would go a long way towards people knowing what human food is safe and healthful for wild animals to eat. For example, unwanted food (such as fat from cooked meat) needn’t be wasted. It could be put outside at dusk so that mammals won’t associate the food with humans. And regarding birds, the threat of disease at feeders can be dealt with by urging folks to clean feeders weekly, and to take them down for a week or more should disease present itself.

Feeding wildlife in our overbuilt environment can aid rather than harm these animals, but it’s extremely important that it be done properly. Please take time to learn how to best assist wildlife, so you can rest assured your efforts have been helpful, not harmful.