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Urban Birds Are Evolving to Be Fed
- telesilla 9y agoThe title is a little disingenuous: the author concludes that while city birds are evolving to be fed, it's not necessarily detrimental as studies show that birds constantly seek backup food sources. Interesting article nonetheless and it certainly makes me reconsider my own bird feeding practice. It's been years at least, since I gave bread to ducks - I'd love nothing more than to see permanent signs at lakes and ponds pointing out how bad bread is for ducks. https://www.popsci.com/feeding-ducks-bread https://www.popsci.com/feeding-ducks-bread
- exprA 9y agoIn larger sense, if fed birds are more successful, it affects the distribution of species (favouring fed part of the ecosystem). Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, and city environment does that anyway.
- maaark 9y agoThe article does mention how their beaks are changing to better retrieve and eat the larger sunflower seeds commonly found in feeders.
- 566d8d6 9y agoand as usual with any news headline involving evolution, it's worded the wrong way round. It should say something like "Fed urban birds have tended to survive more" i.e. looking back, not looking forward as though birds are capable of intentionally changing the genes of future generations
- M_Bakhtiari 9y ago>White bread in particular has no real nutritional value I've never understood this claim that a lot of people seem to make. There's plenty of starch and protein in it, two vital macronutrients. Same with the bizarre claim some people make about breakfast cereals, that you're better off eating the box it comes in. No, you're not, humans cannot digest cellulose.
- forgotmypw 9y agoIf you consider that the cereals are made of wheat and corn that with traces of pesticides, sugar, synthetic ingredients, and so on, all of which cause health problems, the cardboard box starts to seem more appealing.
- autokad 9y agoconsidering i ate almost entirely cereal growing up and was much healthier than most of the people i grew up with, that claim is not worth its weight in font.
- paulryanrogers 9y agoOne data point? Are you sure most of the people you know were eating healthier than you?
- LanceH 9y agoOne is more than none.
- bmurphy1976 9y agoOne is a data point. You can draw any line you feel through it but that doesn't mean it's a trend. You need more data.
- pessimizer 9y agoIt wasn't an argument about a trend. The question of whether you can drive a car by filling its gas tank with cola instead of gasoline is answered after you fill a car with cola instead of gasoline, then drive it. There's no need to establish a trend.
- autokad 9y agoyes, having 0 nutrition would mean that i could not have possibly survived. and if you want to be in the group that thinks eating indigestible cardboard is a possibility because 'there wasnt enough data', have at it. you do realize, you dont need a ton of data in everything to draw conclusions.
- grasshopperpurp 9y agoMy favorite park has signs all along the water, warning people not to feed the animals, but they use an image of an alligator for the signs.
- titzer 9y agoI think you missed the part about how feeders contribute to the spread of disease like conjuctivitis.
- dingaling 9y agoThe authorities where I live are trying to dissuade people from feeding birds, due to a rat problems, and instead focus on putting out clean accessible water or growing bird-atttacting plants.
- ddoran 9y agoI couldn't help but think of "Pigeon House" [1] in Stoneybatter, Dublin, renowned among the city's residents for the roost of pigeons that sit on its roof [2] waiting to be fed, and by the locals trying to avoid them. https://www.dublininquirer.com/2017/11/15/in-stoneybatter-ambivalence-about-the-pigeon-house/ https://www.dublininquirer.com/2017/11/15/in-stoneybatter-am... https://twitter.com/ciarancuffe/status/689492575460421632 https://twitter.com/ciarancuffe/status/689492575460421632
- jbattle 9y agoMy neighbor maintained a bird feeder which brought in tons of different species. He moved and we're back to sparrows / pigeons / redwing blackbirds (summer) and the occasional crow . Ironically the birds I was most enjoyed watching at the "bird feeder" were the red wing hawks that would sometimes come in for a meal
- euyyn 9y agoA dozen paragraphs in, still no sign of what the title claims, only storytelling about the author's life. Can anyone that read it summarize or copy the actual "birds are evolving to be fed" part?
- avsbst 9y agoSo when one of Badyaev’s undergraduate students, Clayton Addison, noticed that the male finches on campus in central Tucson were not singing a rapid trill that’s essential for attracting females in the nearby desert, the lab was able to dig into the data for answers. Comparing the beak sizes, bite forces, and diets of the two populations, the researchers showed that the urban finches rely so heavily on feeders that their beaks have adapted: they’ve become longer and deeper to accommodate the sunflower seeds typically on offer, which are much larger and harder than the small cactus and grass seeds that rural finches eat. This adaptation has altered not only how urban males sing, but also what urban females prefer in a mate. It’s a pattern that Badyaev has since found in other places where finches live in the shadow of humans, the same large beaks arising from a surprisingly diverse array of developmental pathways. Such varied routes to an identical end—a beak strong enough to crack sunflower seeds—may be one way that nature hides variability from the swinging axe of natural selection. Evolutionary theory aside, however, I was stuck on one point: There’s such a thing as a finch Brooklyn accent—thanks to feeders like mine.
- ChuckMcM 9y agoTl;dr - birds that eat at feeders a lot are evolving beaks that are better suited to eating the sort of nuts that people put in such feeders. That wrapped in a tale of angst about conjunctivitis, losing touch with nature, and change in general. I did look up the bird feeders that are inset in your window frame to allow for better visualizing. They are pretty cool.
- acomjean 9y agoI had one of those inset bird feeders. They work, but being in a urban environment I ended up attracting pigeons... My cat loved the one way plexiglass in the feeder and would watch the birds seated on back of a chair. The birds really can't see through it.
- mudil 9y agoNumber of times I've seen something pretty amazing. Here in Portland I've seen little birds, like sparrows, picking and eating squashed insects from front bumpers of the cars. They just fly up and pick those insects that stick to cars when cars drive at night.
- macawfish 9y agoMaybe we can learn to cultivate tick and mosquito hungry birds.