Urban Birds Are Evolving to Be Fed

[ChuckMcM]

Tl;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]

I 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.

[telesilla]

The 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

[M_Bakhtiari]

>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.

[grasshopperpurp]

My 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.

[maaark]

The article does mention how their beaks are changing to better retrieve and eat the larger sunflower seeds commonly found in feeders.

[titzer]

I think you missed the part about how feeders contribute to the spread of disease like conjuctivitis.

[exprA]

In 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.

[566d8d6]

and 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

[dingaling]

The 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]

I 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-am...

https://twitter.com/ciarancuffe/status/689492575460421632

[euyyn]

A 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]

So 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.

[jbattle]

My 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

[mudil]

Number 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.

[blurbleblurble]

Maybe we can learn to cultivate tick and mosquito hungry birds.