Are Bird Feeders Making Birds Lazy?
Mr. Canary Sheds New Light on Bird Feeding
I love days like today.
You know the kind, you set out to do a specific task that you pre-suppose will turn out one way…and then it turns into something better. That’s how this blog post began.
I started out to write about this article I read in the Ottawa Citizen online newspaper. The story describes a research project by a student at the University of Ottawa, Megan Thompson. Using black-capped chickadees (heretofore called Tuxedo Birds by me because they look so formal yet, adorable). Megan and her supervisor, Julie Morand-Ferron offer a look at the way birds learn and memorize things.
Chickadees are hoarders (not the TV show kind) who cache food in all kinds of places to store for winter. They need spatial memory to find it later. The women devised an experiment to test their hypothesis that urban chickadees would perform worse than their rural counterparts. Thompson predicted the urban birds would be lazier at remembering their hiding places because they have greater access to bird feeders. But guess what? (SPOILER AHEAD): There was no significant difference in how well they remembered! Maybe because, hey, it’s LUNCH – not dried prom corsages. But I’m no scientist, it could be chickadees are just as adept at finding their high school memorabilia, who knows?
ANYway, it’s interesting and I wanted to talk to the researchers, but I haven’t been able to reach them yet. And I also wanted to talk to the other person quoted in the article, Bob Volks.
HE called back and you know what I found out?
Birds Help Connect Us to Nature
Bob owns a really cool store in Almonte, Ontario, Canada called Gillagallou Bird. After Googling for information and coming up empty, I had to find out what was up with his store name, what IS a Gillagallou bird?
Bob and his wife, Louise, opened the store nine years ago when Bob “retired…and went to work.” They’ve created a space that utilizes only “renewable stuff.” From fixtures to feeder fabrications and everything between, Bob and Louise are committed to honoring nature, not as philanthropy so much as being conscientious contributors to our ecosystem. As Bob says, “it’s not an ‘us and them’ thing, nature is us.” Understanding this relationship is what makes Bob a perfect example of what it means to be one of Mr. Canary’s peeps because we are committed to providing products that environmentally-friendly. For instance, our newest bird feeder, the Bird & Breakfast, is made from sustainably-sourced materials and our refill ‘En-Trays’ are recyclable.
Check out Bob’s website and then, if you’re looking for some good advice about bird feeding and reclaiming your place in nature, head over to his YouTube channel. He’s got some worthy ideas to share.
Oh, and Gillagallou? It’s a mythical bird from Paul Bunyan stories. When Bob was a kid, his grandfather used it to stop his grandkids from misbehaving, as in, “Hey you Gillagallou Bird, knock it off…”
More evidence of how feeding birds connects us to nature…and each other. If that doesn’t convince you enough, learn more about the benefits that come from feeding birds and you’ll realize that birds aren’t lazy after all, in fact, they help us!
Author: Nathan Odell
Published: July 13, 2019
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