Many cities and suburbs have ordinances against feeding wild birds. This is morally wrong and detrimental to the environment. Birds are beneficial by consuming insect pests during breeding season and throughout the summer months. Countless small birds disappear or die of winter-kill for lack of food. We have usurped all of their seed-producing habitation and destroyed coniferous trees that shield them from the wind and birds of prey. Their lives are reduced to scavenging along roadsides and city sidewalks for french fries and scraps of bread.
Birds require a tremendous amount of calories for their size just to maintain metabolic processes. The fields and vacant lots where grasses and weeds grew with seed-heads that they used to utilize for winter and early spring forage are gone. Birds are literally starving to death.
Small non-native birds such as sparrows and starlings do not migrate. They flock together outside of breeding season in a never ending quest for food. Older individuals of other migratory species such as robins are often incapable of long-distance flight and spend the winter in backyards. These birds rarely travel more than 2-3 miles from the place of their birth. The concrete jungle offers very little in terms of food.
Many areas impose stiff fines of up to $500.00 for feeding them. These birds as well as finches and cardinals rely on kindhearted people to help them survive. In a world where numerous species are going extinct every day, we need to help these creatures in their struggle for survival.
Imagine a world without their song.
