UK households feeding birds in their garden are being warned not to give them bread unless it is offered in a certain way.
While birds can eat bread it is not recommended by wildlife experts as it provides them with little to no nutrition, and it can cause digestive problems as it swells in their stomach.
Birds require foods that are high-fat and rich in energy, especially when the weather is cold as this helps to keep them both warm and active.
Foods like suet, berries, dried fruits and grated cheese are all good sources of fat and energy, whereas bread won’t give birds the nutrition that they need so it generally advised that households don’t offer it.
The Woodland Trust warns: “It’s always best to avoid leaving bread out for birds. While it fills them up, it doesn’t provide the right sort of nutrients or energy they need each day. This is especially bad in winter when birds need lots of good quality food to boost their energy reserves and help them keep warm.”
However, if you are going to leave bread out for birds then wildlife experts say you should only offer them moist or soaked bread, as dry bread can be harmful because it swells in the stomach.
If bread is too large or has gone hard it can also present a choking hazard to small birds and if it is left to go mouldy, this can lead to illness as it can contain harmful toxins.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) explains: “Bread does not contain the necessary protein, fat, vitamins and minerals birds need, and so it can act as an empty filler. A bird on a diet of predominantly or only bread can suffer from serious vitamin deficiencies or starve. Only put out an amount that birds will eat in a day.
“Moist bread is better than stale dry bread, and brown bread is better than white. During the breeding season, crumble the bread into tiny pieces so that it is only eaten by the adult birds, and only put out small amounts at a time.
“Dry chunks of bread can choke baby birds, and a chick on a diet of bread may not develop into a healthy fledgling.”
Having access to a regular food source is of the utmost importance to birds, particularly during the winter months when usual snacks of live insects, worms and fruit can be harder to access, so it’s vital that gardeners help birds to get sustenance where they can.
But winter is not the only time to feed birds as habitat loss in the countryside, due to development and agriculture, now means that birds have fewer places to live and find the food they need, making gardens a key food source for them.
The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust says: “They are often restricted to hedgerows, nature reserves and gardens, meaning our private gardens are now very important for birds. Therefore managing your garden is important and if you provide both natural and supplementary food, your garden will be visited year round by a host of different birds.
“Because food shortages can occur at any time of the year, if you feed the birds all year round you give them a better chance to survive periods of shortage.
“In reality they need our help all year round as in winter food is naturally scarce, in spring adults are trying to raise chicks, in summer birds use a lot of energy moulting, and in autumn they are storing up fat reserves for the winter.”