Got Told off for Feeding Native Birds by Neighbours

Lbala fish on 01/02/2021 - 13:41
Last edited 01/02/2021 - 14:56 by 1 other user

Hi everyone.

I've just moved into my new house with my family 1 month ago where there are a lot of native birds around. I bought wild parrot seed mix and started feeding them in a little pot on the floor underneath my balcony. The birds that come by for the seeds are sulphur crested cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets, and I saw a crimson rosella parrot last week too! The cockatoos come in groups of 3-5 but the most I've seen at one time is 12.

Last weekend in the morning I saw some 3 cockatoos come by waiting for a feed. I refilled the pot and I was watching them from the balcony when the next door neighbour went onto her balcony (about 25 metres away- we live on a large piece of land) and shouted at us "HEY! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO FEED THEM. STOP FEEDING THE BIRDS. THEY EAT EVERYTHING" while gesturing to her balcony and house?? And stormed back in.

Now the neighbours haven't been the friendliest since we moved. We try to gesture hello but they just ignore us…

Here's the kicker. I've seen them feed a group of kookaburras everyday at a certain time so I thought it was ok for me to feed the native birds too. I don't feed pigeons (not that there are any here), crows or magpies. Previously I feed the birds at my place about 2 handfuls of of seeds 3 times a week. Well I'm not going to feed them anymore now as its left a bad taste in my mouth.

I did read up on native bird feeding and it is discouraged so I shall stop anyways.

I just wanted your thoughts on the situation and also vent a little bit. I know I am in the wrong in feeding them now but I think they're being hypocritical but I'm not going to fight them on it as they do seem a bit unhinged in their other behaviours.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • Raj09 on 04/02/2021 - 21:42

    Seriously the world is cruel. I would rather feed a kookaburra and have it live another day than not doing so and finding it feeble and dying. If your neighbours are annoyed, tell them to look the other way.

    • sclyde2 on 04/02/2021 - 23:01
      -1

      I starting to fear for democracy being a viable option. too many clueless c#@ts. the kind that think it is a feasible option to go full ostrich and put your head in the sand, "look the other way", while some birds proceed to reduce your quality of life, as shared by those above, with noise, crapping, and destroying. some people just cant see past the nose on their face. and then they think "poor birds", need help. like the birds wont survive unless you feed them? WTF? ask just about any expert on wild birds, who truly cares about them, they will tell you: if you really cared about the birds, you wouldn't feed them. yeah there are a few right ways to do it, but the kind of people who do it usually dont, and care more about the "rewarding" feel they get from some creature having some fleeting pleasure from their feeding, rather than the welfare of the bird itself. so selfish.

      • Raj09 on 04/02/2021 - 23:14
        +1

        OK. I agree in part. However I'm talking with the context of the forest fires which decimated more than a billion animals here.. I'll agree with what an expert say and know that you should not feed wild animals as they will start depending on you and might actually look for food from other people as well.

        But you know the context as well as I do. The world is at odds with nature and at the current rate of economic activity we might see some species go extinct within our life time. Hell even the koala or the platypus might be threatened.

        Contrary to you, I won't judge your level of intellect or assume that you should not speak merely for stating the obvious.

        Help the birds or the kookaburras to the way someone can. If you can't agree, then you are free to go live in your concrete jungle devoid of life and colour.

        Vae victis

  • joelmuzz on 05/02/2021 - 07:43

    "They eat everything" she is referring to the cockatoos being destructive, not their diet health.
    If you attract cockatoos they start entertaining themselves by vandalizing nearby wood/foam and anything which gives a satisfying rip and makes chunks. They also get mean if they expect regular food and you miss a few days.

    Plenty of neighbourhoods have unwritten rules not to attract the little monsters.

  • petry on 05/02/2021 - 10:26
    -1

    apparently the only native birds left are cockatoos…. if you don't see the others can't see why your views about 1 species only inform the discussion about feeding native birds in general and also when areas are decimated by human interference and hellfires.

  • mjcoll123 on 06/02/2021 - 05:18

    What I object to more than anything our beautiful native birds could ever do (and I used to be woken early by a squadron of cockatoos) is people who let their well fed cats wander all over the place, killing native birds and animals. We had a family of fairy wrens living happily in a native bush in our garden for a years - until a cat decapitated the patriarch for fun. We’ve had several similar occurrences since, the most recent being one of our fish being caught and left by the side of the pond.

    • zwolf on 06/02/2021 - 05:58

      Cats gonna cat.

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