To Feed Or Not To Feed The Birds (Naked City)

To feed, or not to feed, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The screeches and droppings of an avian marauder
Or hand out the bird seed against the will of those heartless bureaucrats
(with apologies to Billy Shakespeare)

Humans feeding wild birds is a tradition that goes back thousands of years, although the British seem to claim that this genteel pastime originated in the UK. The sixth century monk Saint Serf of Fife is sometimes credited as the first recorded bird feeder, taming a wild robin in the process. Over the following years, during particular harsh winters, thoughtful Brits often put food out for birds and by the early 1900s, bird feeding had become a national pastime.

Here in Australia, there are numerous kind hearted folks who love to feed our avian friends, be they parrots, honey eaters or kookaburras – to name just a few of the many delightful species that grace out shores. If you live in the suburbs of Sydney, even within the inner city, it’s not difficult to attract birds to your backyard or balcony and their presence often evokes a spiritual vibe. In this troubled world they are the ultimate ambassadors of what true freedom really is.

Pigeons of course are much maligned, often referred to as flying rats and the depositors of literally tonnes of droppings in cities all around the world. They seldom get credit for activities such as hoovering up all the crumbs and other human food discarded in city streets and railway station platforms. The untidier humans become, in disposing of their trash and the remains of fast food, the more the pigeon population increases. There are of course some humans who actually enjoy feeding pigeons and what’s a handful of crumbs thrown in their direction as you eat your lunchtime sandwich.

There is a famous Charles Addams cartoon sequence of an elderly man feeding pigeons from a park bench in the park. They swarm around him and eventually he is completely covered by them, impossible to see. They eventually fly away leaving only a cleanly picked skeleton on the bench.

If that’s not a deterrent  then there are certain parts of the world where so called ‘flying rats’ attract huge penalties if you deliberately feed them. Not surprisingly in Singapore, where even leaving your restaurant table in a mess can attract a sizeable fine, feeding pigeons is very much illegal. Authorities there stress that they can carry diseases such as salmonella and ornithosis, not to mention creating a Jackson Pollock on the windscreen in your car in the parking lot. The fine for first offenders is a mere $5,000 with repeat offenders copping up to $10,500.

If you think that’s harsh then try rewarding a bunch of these clucking scavengers in South Australia, where fines can run as high as $30,000. Western Australia has similarly severe penalties but the Eastern States seem a lot more lenient. If you are planning to eat your lunch in Hyde Park tomorrow or any public space for that matter, feel free to toss the cute little buggers some crumbs. You won’t be breaking the law.

These days it’s not the pigeons that are regarded as the worst flying pests, it’s the much larger cockatoos, especially the sulphur crested variety. They are very much a tourist attraction in Sydney, perfect for that photo opp as they alight on your arm to demand a suitable titbit. You might have seen one or two sporting a wing tag number as that’s an ongoing initiative to track their movement throughout the metropolitan area and beyond.

Every number corresponds with a distinctive name to help members of the public identify and supposedly bond with them. “Oh, looks there’s Mephistopheles chewing up the railing on my heritage home balcony!”. Yes, the cockies can become very destructive, especially when they congregate in large numbers and decide or some serious beak driven destruction.

A number of Sydney and greater Sydney councils such as Sutherland and the Blue Mountains now have regular campaigns to stop people feeding the cockatoos. They see them as malingerers, flocking in numbers to areas where food is plentiful – and what they eat is not nutritionally good for them, like scraps of fast food. They point out:

“Feeding the cockatoos can make them demanding and aggressive, causing significant damage to our natural and built environment. It can also make them over reliant on the food source, meaning they suffer when it’s not available.”

In the Blue Mountains they are definitely an attraction for the many tourists, especially those from Asia but the Council makes an ecological plea noting:

“The numbers of sulphur-crested are reported to have increased dramatically in the Blue Mountains in the last few decades, while numbers of less dominant species, such as the threatened glossy black and gang gang cockatoos, are decreasing. It is thought that the sulphur-crested cockatoos compete for nesting hollows with these less dominant birds and push them out.”

So next time you see a poor old plodding pigeon at your local railway station or an aggressive sulphur crested cocky on your back fence, imagine you are in Singapore or Adelaide and the cost of feeding one could send you bankrupt.