Overview:
MassWildlife is urging people to stop using bird feeders due to the increasing encounters with bears and other wildlife in residential areas. Bird feeders attract unwanted animals like bears and desensitize them to humans, keeping them coming back into neighborhoods for more. Moreover, bird feeders contribute to the largest sources of wild bird mortality in North America, including predation, window strikes, and disease.
BELCHERTOWN — Claudia Chamberlain had an unexpected guest over for breakfast recently.
The Belchertown resident sat down at her kitchen table at 8:05 a.m., ready to eat, and saw a black bear slouched in her yard over a bird feeder. The bear had bent the feeder to eye level to access its breakfast.
“I didn’t really know that bears roam during the day looking for food,” Chamberlain wrote in an email. “I thought it only happened at night, and now I’m wondering how I’m going to get my birds fed again, because they come to my deck and look at me like they’re asking me where our food is.”
Chamberlain usually pulls in her birdseed at dusk to deter any bears, then puts out her feeder in the morning to attract colorful songbirds. As much as she loves her winged visitors, she has stopped putting out birdseed since the bear sighting.
“My neighbor has three girls. They are very young and I’m very afraid that the bear will come back and the girls will be at risk of their lives,” she wrote. “I will not put the girls’ lives at risk because of this.”
Chamberlain’s tale has become more common in recent years, as encounters with bears and other wildlife continue to climb. That’s why MassWildlife is asking people to “break up with their bird feeder,” partially due to attracting unwanted animals like bears. In its August newsletter, the state department also notes that feeders desensitize animals to humans, keeping them coming back into neighborhoods for more.
“You may be surprised to learn that bird feeders cause more harm than good for wild animals,” the newsletter reads. “While feeders have some benefits for birds, they contribute to the largest sources of wild bird mortality in North America and are a major driver of human-wildlife conflict.”
According to MassWildlife Community Engagement Biologist Meghan Crawford, the three main drivers of bird mortality are predation, window strikes and disease. Household cats, specifically those that spend time wandering the neighborhood, will attack birds feeding on birdseed.
Birds swooping down to get their daily snack may see a reflection of that feeder or nearby tree in the window. Instead of spinning around to the actual destination, birds will fly straight into the glass.
“With disease, thinking about if a disease passes through direct physical contact and then you have a place where animals are congregating because of a food source there, that just increases the ways that diseases can spread,” Crawford explained.
In an article for MassWildlife’s magazine called “Loving Wildlife to Death,” Crawford recounts the relationship between bird feeders and high rates of avian pox, a disease caused by biting insects among wild turkey populations. Mange, a type of skin disease in foxes and racoons, also increases infection rate around bird feeders.
“It’s a natural disease but around bird feeders it spreads with a little more frequency,” Crawford said. “That’s why when someone calls about a concern relating to a fox with mange, usually our first recommendation to stop the spread of mange is to secure any food on the property and take down bird feeders.”
Small mammals like mice, rats, chipmunks and squirrels also feed on birdseed. Their predators often visit the new congregation area of prey for a meal.
The newsletter also notes that wild turkeys lose their natural fear of humans after regular visits to residential backyards for food, leading to conflicts with humans. Bears that lose this fear attack livestock.
“MassWildlife saw this exact situation result in the orphaning of four bear cubs in Athol this year,” Crawford wrote in a Masschusetts Wildlife magazine article. “The mother bear was ultimately killed while raiding a chicken coop, but this learned behavior of searching for food in a suburban area started with visiting ‘harmless’ bird feeders.”
Crawford added that cubs who watch their mothers feed from chicken coops and bird feeders will continue this behavior into adulthood.
“These cubs are learning how to be a black bear from their mom,” Crawford said. “So if their mother is stopping at bird feeders and visiting chicken coops, those cubs learn that same lesson and practice that behavior even as they grow independent.”
Chamberlain wrote that she has stopped putting out birdseed since the bear sighting. Not even a week after the first bear, a mother bear and her two cubs came through her backyard looking for food.
For nature lovers like Chamberlain, Crawford recommends people turn their bird feeder in for a well-maintained bird bath. Planting native plants, shrubs and trees offers not only a food source for birds, but shelter as well.
One tip that works well for Crawford in her own backyard is leaving little piles of leaves, dirt and sticks around for bugs to nestle in. Birds often pop out of the trees and onto a little mound of dirt for a “bug snack,” which leads to spontaneous and unique bird sightings.
“We imagine people have birdfeeders because they love wildlife and love seeing wildlife,” Crawford said, “but there’s better ways to support local wildlife that reduce harm to them.”
