The many benefits of bird feeding

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For some time, bird watching has been among the top hobbies of people worldwide, and especially in America, where a vast variety of birds make their homes in backyards and public places. Clearly, giving the local avifauna an incentive to visit you at home can provide you with an excellent vantage point of natural winged beauty, but as many prolific amateur ornithologists already know, there are far more benefits to feeding the birds than meets the eye. If in doubt about whether or not to take the plunge into attracting these fair fowl, consider the following returns, which are just some of the many benefits of bird feeding …

Benefits of bird feeding

Insect control

The diet of the typical bird consists of much more than birdseed and nectar. Worms, insects, arachnoids, snails, and other small creatures that might be considered a threat in your home or garden are all popular menu items. If you’re not sure about spreading toxic chemicals all over your property, why not make use of a truly organic pest control in the form of bird life?

Pollination

Beyond feasting on the very insects that threaten your flowers, herbs, and veggies, birds provide an additional benefit to your landscaping endeavors by pollinating. Help from birds can mean thriving, prosperous flower beds and less time spent righting the wrongs of garden pests.

Weed management

Birds controlling weeds? It might sound far-fetched, but small species of birds like finches and sparrows eat loads of seeds, and they particularly enjoy those from seed-bearing weeds that are typically unwanted in intentional landscapes or gardens.

Nature lessons

Whether you intend it to be so or not, spending time around birds will teach you more than you ever thought you wanted to know about avian behavior, personality, and interaction. Along with this will come a more intuitive understanding of animal instincts and motivations, and for the more philosophically inclined, perhaps some lessons in human nature as well. These excursions into the mind of the bird can prove particularly meaningful to children, as well as urbanites who have little opportunity to interact with nature.

Birds as free pets

While wild birds will rarely provide you with the type of interaction you could expect from a dog or cat, it is possible to become so familiar with the birds in your area that you recognize certain ones by distinct markings or unique personality traits. You can reap quite a few of the benefits of pet ownership without having worries such as permission, registration, vaccination, veterinary care, and so on.

Inviting birds to your backyard is not always completely free, and you may encounter difficulty in getting them to accept your invitation. In view of the many benefits of bird feeding, however, the costs are small and few, and the effort you put in will be more than rewarded in full.

8 thoughts on “The many benefits of bird feeding”

  1. I like that you point out that one benefit of having a bird feeder and bird house is that this reduces the amount of pests that are roaming in your garden and yard. I can see why this would be important if you are trying to keep a health looking yard. My mom loves to plant flowers in the spring. I’ll have to ask her if she puts out bird feed to bring more birds in.

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  2. My mom is wanting to add something new to her backyard for this upcoming summer. I think she would really like a birdhouse so that she can watch the birds throughout the summer. I like how you point out that spending time around birds will teach you more than you ever thought you wanted to know. This is great information for my mom.

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  3. I found it interesting when you said that bird feeding can also help with pollination. As you mentioned, they do not only eat the pests that threaten the garden plants, but they also help scatter the pollen. With that in mind, I might give my mom a bird feeder for her birthday to help her garden bloom more. She never had any birdhouse or bird feeder before, so I thought that it would be a nice addition in their garden. Thanks!

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  4. I love feeding the cheep cheeps. They’re like mother nature’s juke boxes… the weeds and pollination are good points to mention to others who may need more convincing than us bird lovers as to why they could also benefit from feeding the cheep cheeps.

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  5. I had no idea that birds could help with weed management. I’ve been thinking about buying an outdoor bird feeder for my backyard. Now I know that there is an extra incentive to buy a bird feeder.

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  6. It’s good that insect control is a benefit of attracting birds to your yard. I have a lot of mosquitos and I’ve been desperately trying to find a way to get rid of them. I think having a bunch of hungry birds in your yard will take care of a lot of bug problems.

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  7. I didn’t know birds pollinate, and they get rid of garden pests. My new house has a pretty sweet backyard with lots of trees. I want the birds to stick around so I’ll have to get some rustic wood birdhouses.

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  8. Wow, it’s great to know that there are birds that can potentially prevent the spread of weeds in my garden. I’ve been thinking about getting a bird feeder installed in my garden in the hopes that I can attract hummingbirds that I could then photograph. I hope I can find one that is ant proof though since I think having too many bugs on a bird feeder would deter birds from flocking to it.

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