Should you feed bread to birds? Stuart Blackman takes a look at the evidence
Feeding the birds is one of life’s simple pleasures. But deciding when, how and what to feed them can be surprisingly tricky. The question of whether we should feed bread to birds is usually posed in the context of ducks in the park.
Can you feed bread to ducks?
There’s little evidence that it does them much harm in itself, though one study from the 1980s suggested that a bread diet reduces muscle mass in swans.
The current consensus is that bread just doesn’t have the nutritional value of alternatives such as grain or vegetables and that ducks that come to rely on bakery products thrown at them by toddlers are less motivated to forage for other, more healthy options.
“Bread is fine for water birds as long as it only forms a small part of their diet,” advises the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT). “Moderation is especially important in the spring and summer, when an unbalanced diet can cause developmental problems for growing young birds.”
On the other hand, feeding bread might still be better than nothing, especially in winter, when food is scarce.
More feeding advice
- Best garden bird feeders: attract birds to your garden
- Best five bird feeds for garden birds
- How to feed your garden birds ethically