Feeding Garden Birds in Winter leads to better breeding

From Wildlife Extra

February 2008. Keep feeding the birds over winter: that’s the message from research by the University of Exeter and Queen’s University Belfast, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. The study shows for the first time that the extra food we provide garden birds in winter makes for a more successful breeding season in the spring.

Better Survival rate for Chicks
By providing some birds with extra food and leaving others to fend for themselves, the team was able to compare productivity between the two groups. Those that were given extra food laid eggs earlier and, although they produced the same number of chicks, an average of one more per clutch successfully fledged. Although it was well known that garden feeding helps many birds survive the winter, this is the first time that the benefits to spring breeding and productivity have been shown.

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