Expert reaction to RSPB Garden Bird Feeding announcement

Following the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds announcement advising people not to feed garden birds with seed and peanuts between May and October, Lucy Taylor has shared her response, highlighting the potential impact on songbird populations and breeding success.

Lucy Taylor, a leading authority on garden bird feeding, said: “I’ve been in a unique position to carefully consider the validity of the RSPB’s new policy on garden bird feeding, because the RSPB consulted with Vine House Farm Bird Foods ahead of their announcement and we provided the RSPB with a solid case saying why this would be the wrong thing to do. This came about because of our partnership with the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), who were working with the RSPB on their review of supplementary feeding for garden birds, and specifically its role in disease transmission for species of finch.

“The review and the science used, is reasonably comprehensive and robust – although all parties accept that more work needs to be done. However, here at Vine House Farm, we believe that the RSPB’s solution to reduce disease transmission is not the right one for the following reasons:

“Our own research carried out over many decades at our farm, demonstrates a huge benefit to breeding populations of some species of songbird because of supplementary feeding of seed – especially during May and June. The drastic reduction in natural insect food which we’ve progressively seen over the last 50 years, means there is a real ‘food gap’ during the breeding season. There’s also far less natural seed available because of losing virtually all our historic wildflower meadows, plus more generally as a result of intensive farming. So, by also removing food provided in gardens, it is very likely to reduce the levels of breeding success in some songbird species.

“The issue of disease transmission in birds is not just because of garden feeding, but what practices are adopted. We’ve long advocated very strict hygiene and other measures such as frequently moving feeders around, all of which help reduce the problem.

“Many people will still feed the birds with seed in their gardens during the spring and summer, but because only some will take the RSPB’s advice, there will inevitably be a much greater concentration of birds on feeders in gardens where they remain. This will logically then result in an increase of disease transmission at a local level.

“And a specific reason some people will continue to feed the birds in their gardens is because of the known benefits to their mental health and a sense of wellbeing.

“We put an alternative proposal to the RSPB, which, had they adopted it, I firmly believe would have led to their desired result of greatly reducing disease transmission, and therefore reversing the decline in numbers of species like Greenfinch and Chaffinch. The basis of this proposal was:

• Don’t ask people to stop feeding seed and peanuts to birds but instead use your considerable influence to ask them to only feed if they adopt absolute best practice – and especially around feeder hygiene. That best practice would also include reducing the amount of seed at an appropriate time in the season.
• Get the whole bird food industry on your side – both suppliers and retailers – by holding a conference for them with the aim of launching a set of best practice principles.
• Offer suppliers and retailers some sort of ‘RSPB accreditation’ for publicising the best practice principles to customers.
• In short, revolutionise the whole way people view their approach to feeding birds, and this to ensure a marked reduction is disease transmission.

“Obviously I was disappointed that our proposal was not adopted, but none the less it has prompted me to redouble our efforts at Vine House Farm Bird Foods to push the message about continuing to feed garden birds, but only if you can adopt best practice principles. For spring and summer feeding, we’ve also produced a comprehensive guide to cover best practice, which includes info about reducing seed in favour of live foods such as mealworms.

“Finally, I’d like to make clear that our position at Vine House Farm is to continue to support the RSPB’s wider aims and efforts, plus we’ll keep the door open if they wish to reengage with us in order to jointly work on a strategy which achieves the goal of greatly reducing disease transmission.”

The full response statement from Vine House Farm Bird Foods for the RSPB announcement can be read here.