Bird’s Eye sunset, March 30
All kingfishers have extraordinary eyesight. Each eye has two fovea, not just one, and they do different jobs making for excellent acuity, picking out movement and judging distance.
This Kookaburra flew up to us, perhaps expecting a feed – but don’t feed birds. There are heaps of reasons:
- Birds that are used to being fed become dependant on human-provided food and change their foraging behaviours.
- Young birds that are taught to depend on humans for food will lose hunting and foraging skills and will be less likely to survive.
- Native birds that are fed lose their fear of people and develop unnatural behaviours, which results in conflicts with humans.
- When birds cluster at feeders or sites unnaturally, the chance of spreading diseases is high.
- Poor nutrition, through feeding the wrong type of food, reduces immunity and leaves the birds open to the invasion of diseases. Bread is not that good for us even. For example, carnivores like magpies and currawongs can develop gut problems from the high fat content in the meat provided by humans and calcium deficiencies.
Backyard feeding of wild birds can decrease native species while boosting introduced species, research has found. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 2015.
And if you have a bird bath keep it clean