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One aspect not addressed is that birds using feeders are at increased risk of being killed by pet cats. Could this be offsetting the greater food supply?
by Causality1 5y ago
One aspect not addressed is that birds using feeders are at increased risk of being killed by pet cats. Could this be offsetting the greater food supply?
- stinos 5y agoI don't think that is a generalisation which can easily be made. Many factors in play as well, e.g. imagine the situation where the birds normally have to be at about ground level to pick seeds, and one hangs a feeder on a washing line. The latter cannot be reached by cats, in the former situation the casts just have to wait for their possible meal to arrive. At the same time seeds drop from the feeder so birds going for that are an easier target for cats. But that's back to square one, so might not total to increased risk.
- pfdietz 5y agoWe've had birds at our feeders killed by American Kestrels. One could view this as another layer of indirection in bird feeding.