lookatthisbabybird:

why-animals-do-the-thing:

agent-hardass:

agent-hardass:

I really like the idea of making bird friends and crows do seem both popular and awesome, but I have questions:

Does regular giving them even recommended food harm their diet or willingness to get food from other sources?

Will they wind up liking humans more and be a problem where they can get hurt?

Is bird flu still a thing? Would I create a health hazard or find someone afraid of that hazard, real or perceived, who could hurt the crows?

@upthewitchypunx

@why-animals-do-the-thing

Seem like good info sources?

Also what if I move? Would that be a problem if I disappear on them?

Even feeding them recommended diets (which is a hard thing to pin down, as they’re scavengers) will make them more likely to seek out humans as food, and that habituation will absolutely impact foraging behavior. It will make them much more likely to start interacting with any humans in the area, and can lead to harassment and aggressive behavior towards humans with food who won’t pony up.

I don’t know about bird flu, but even if it’s not a problem, absence of risk isn’t a good reason to mess with wildlife.

The “birdfriend” trend that’s been taking the internet by storm isn’t an ethical one, and I probably should have been contexutalizing that more. It’s pretty selfish for us to change the entire life and lifestyle of a wild animal just because we want a Disney-esque relationship with it for a little while. And yes, while some corvids initiate interactions with people seemingly in the absence of food, the hard truth is that it’s probably because someone else already fed them.

Habituating birds to people absolutely impacts the health and longevity of the animals, and we really just need to leave birds to be birds. There are plenty of domesticated animals that we’ve shaped over time to depend on us – they make great friends. If you really want to see wild birds, put out a general feeder and watch them from afar. They’ll make the connection and hang around more, but they’ll still retain their natural behaviors and will remain safely wary of people.

It’s definitely bad for the birds’ welfare, for the reasons above, but if you’re still not convinced because you want bird friends:

Corvids (crows, ravens, magpies, jays) will harass you if you hand feed them and then suddenly stop, which you’re bound to do eventually. You do not want to “befriend” corvids, because you are subjecting yourself to a type of harassment from birds you didn’t know was possible.