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Research | Open Access

Food preferences by birds using bird-feeders in winter: a large-scale experiment

Piotr Tryjanowski1( ), Anders Pape Møller2, Federico Morelli3, Piotr Indykiewicz4, Piotr Zduniak5, Łukasz Myczko1
Institute of Zoology, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 71C, 60-625 Poznan, Poland
Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Université Paris-Sud, CNRS, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycká 129, 165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
Department of Zoology and Landscaping, University of Technology and Life Sciences, Ks. A. Kordeckiego 20, 85-225 Bydgoszcz, Poland
Department of Avian Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznan, Poland
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Abstract

Background

Intentional winter bird feeding in gardens is one of the most common interactions between birds and humans. Because feeding may have both desired effects (provisioning of nutritious food for under-nourished birds) and undesired effects (favouritism of competitively superior species, transmission of disease), management of supplementary sites should be optimized from an ecological and conservation perspective. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to experimentally test winter food preferences of birds, with underlying potential influence of habitat (rural vs. urban) on realised food preferences pattern.

Methods

We conducted an experimental analysis of food preferences of wintering birds by provided bird-feeders in urban and rural environments across Poland. Data were collected twice during winter 2013–2014 across Poland, in total with 80 experimental trials.

Results

Sunflower seeds were the most preferred food supplement both in urban and rural habitats, significantly more exploited than any other food simultaneously available in feeders (animal fat, millet seed and dry fruits of rowanberry). However, no significant differences were recorded between urban and rural habitats in use of food.

Conclusions

The degree of use of a particular type of food at bird-feeders depended on the overall use of food in a bird-feeder-consumption of each of the four types of food was significantly positively correlated with that of the others, and it was positively correlated with the number of birds observed at the feeders.

Keywords

BirdFood preferencesHuman–animal interactionsSupplementary foodWinter

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Avian Research
Volume 9 Issue 1,
January 2018
Article number: 16
DOI: 10.1186/s40657-018-0111-z
Cite this article:
Tryjanowski P, Møller AP, Morelli F, et al. Food preferences by birds using bird-feeders in winter: a large-scale experiment. Avian Research, 2018, 9(1): 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-018-0111-z

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Received: 13 November 2017
Accepted: 16 May 2018
Published: 18 May 2015
© The Author(s) 2018.

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