Feeding can spread disease through a concentration of food and birds in large numbers in one place. Bird seed left out in damp conditions rots, grows mould and introduces disease to the birds, and can attract rats and mice. Feeding encourages birds to become dependent on humans for their survival.
Although bread isn't harmful to birds, try not to offer it in large quantities, since its nutritional value is relatively low. A bird that is on a diet of predominantly, or only bread, can suffer from serious vitamin deficiencies, or starve.
Although seed mixes are common, you can attract many different species by putting out a variety of edible things: nuts, berries, chopped fruit, and even frozen peas and corn all work. Although a lot of people offer mincemeat to magpies and kookaburras, we now know this can be harmful.
Black sunflower seeds, pinhead oatmeal, soaked sultanas, raisins and currants, mild grated cheese, mealworms, waxworms, mixes for insectivorous birds, good seed mixtures without loose peanuts, RSPB food bars and summer seed mixture are all good foods to provide.
Most people feed birds out of a misguided desire to care for them. Feeding native birds is strongly discouraged as it can lead to health problems or even death for the birds, and issues such as mess and noise for neighbours.
Any dry breakfast cereal makes for useful bird food, although you need to be careful only to put out small amounts at a time. And make sure there's a supply of drinking water nearby, since it quickly turns into pulp once wet. Uncooked porridge oats are also fine for a number of birds.
They include insects (including grubs and woodboring larvae), tree leaves and blossoms, nectar, pollen, wild fruits in season, grass roots, wild grasses and their seeds.
Please don't give wild birds bread, crackers or other human snack foods. Bread has zero nutrition for wild birds. In fact, bread, crackers, chips and other human snacks are, in some ways, WORSE than feeding birds absolutely nothing.
Raw meat, cheese and bread off the menu
Brisbane bird and exotic animal vet Deborah Monks said raw meat and mince, although popular, did the most damage to magpie health. "I wouldn't recommend raw mince on its own because it doesn't have enough calcium in it," she said.
The diet of a magpie
Their main diet in summer is grassland invertebrates, such as beetles, flies, caterpillars, spiders, worms and leatherjackets. In winter, they eat more plant material, such as wild fruits, berries and grains, with household scraps and food scavenged from bird tables or chicken runs, pet foods etc.
Echoing this view, the NSW Government of Environment and Heritage website advises against feeding any native animals, including birds. “When you feed native animals you're giving them the wildlife equivalent of junk food.
It might seem strange to feed them eggs, but cooked eggs are a highly nutritious and wholesome meal for many wild birds. They also love crushed eggshells, so you could even cook and crush up your boiled egg leftovers to feed to the garden birds!
Dairy. Although not technically toxic, studies show that birds cannot digest lactose, which is found in milk and other dairy products. As the amount of dairy in the diet increases, birds can develop diarrhea.
Bright yellow, red, and orange vegetables and fruits, including bell peppers, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, mango, papaya, and cantaloupe, all contain a great deal of vitamin A which is a critical nutrient in a birds' diet.
Never feed lorikeets processed foods, like bread. Don't ever feed lorikeets grains. ONLY feed lorikeets healthy food scraps.
“The main things people will feed them is mince or dog kibble but both are not good for magpies. Mince is too high in different nutrient levels - often too much fat – as in the wild, they are feeding on leaner foods.”
Yes, birds can eat porridge oats, but they need to be dry – cooked (or wet) and they will stick to and set around birds' beaks.
Rolled naked oats are a nutritious food for a number of garden bird species, and in particular those that typically feed on the ground such as Blackbird, Robin and Starling. These oats are similar to porridge oats and use the same original grain, with the difference being how they're processed.
Can birds eat uncooked oats? Unlike humans, birds' stomachs are able to easily process uncooked oats. It's very important that, when feeding oats to birds, you do not cook them into porridge first. Cooked porridge is too sticky for birds to consume, and can get stuck in their beaks when they try to eat it.
Most types of oats that you would use to make porridge or oatmeal will be fine for offering to garden birds as long as they are not cooked. So, rolled oats, steel-cut oats, jumbo oats and pinhead oats are all good to feed to garden birds.
What do they eat? Magpies feed on small insects and animals that live on, or just under, the surface of the ground. A favourite is the scarab beetle, which is a major pest of garden lawns. Magpies will also eat frogs, small lizards, meat scraps and grain.
Raw Meat. Many birds are carnivorous, but avoid offering raw meat in any form, including ground meats or meat scraps. These foods can spoil very quickly and will grow dangerous bacteria without proper storage. 3 Instead, offer fatty protein such as suet to give birds a nutritious and safe option.
While it's common to leave mincemeat for the laughing bird, it doesn't provide the nutrients kookaburras need. In an article published on Australian Geographic, mincemeat is described as being similar to “a late-night cheeseburger.” Kookaburras are carnivores, so feed on mice, snakes and small reptiles.