Why You Should Not Feed Bread to the Birds

Thank you for posting the connection about Angel Wing - I did not know that but in Hyde Park a few weeks ago I saw an Egyptian goose with a bad case of this, and I thought it was injured.

I phoned the Parks office and was put through to the wildlife officer who told me it was a deformity that several of the geese have in the park, and there is nothing they can do. They did not mention the link to artificial feeding as the probable cause.

I do think Hyde Park could do more to educate people about this and will contact them again to suggest they do. I will definitely make sure to up my own game now and do more to educate people about the effects.

Brechin Castle Centre had a swan on its pond with Angel Wing for a few years. They displayed a notice informing the people in their park. This was when I became aware of the problem. The bird was always grooming the wing.

It worries me when sparrows or starlings drop bread in my garden and it's always fought over. I've always used it as a vehicle for high energy food, processing it with suitable fat, leftover cheese, apple, peanuts etc.

I think there are not many replies because there are not many people visiting the forums :(

I learned about bread and birds when I was a little girl, in St James's Park, back when it was still full of House Sparrows, which would come to people's hands for food. I was standing on the bridge where the sparrows came down (the rest of my family were sitting on a bench nearby) and a man came up to me, said 'You don't want to feed them on bread,' took said bread out of my hand and dropped it into the lake below. Then he poured some birdseed into my hand and told me to give that to the sparrows instead. Which was all fine, except the bread he'd taken from me was actually the sandwich I was having for lunch...

aiki said:

and a man came up to me, said 'You don't want to feed them on bread,' took said bread out of my hand and dropped it into the lake below. Then he poured some birdseed into my hand and told me to give that to the sparrows instead. Which was all fine, except the bread he'd taken from me was actually the sandwich I was having for lunch...

Great story. 

LOVE that story Aiki, so funny! :))

Hazel b said:

Well choco I find it amazing that it has taken me over 20 years to find out.

Also I find it strange that few people have responded to this thread as it must be a common issue. 

We feed stale bread to our chickens, along with bran, cooked vegetables, raw vegetables & grain. Instead of throwing away bread it could be given to your local chicken keeper!! We actually buy stale bread in a large bag from our local bakers to keep the supply up.

Ah so if bread is part of a balanced diet then it is ok?

I found this thread  by monkeycheese   about same problem. See    Canada Goose With Plumage Issues

I must say that I'd never heard of angel wing until I saw this thread.  I've been feeding the gulls at work on white bread - with no ill effects, thankfully - but they got brown bread the last time I fed them.

Hazel b said:

Ah so if bread is part of a balanced diet then it is ok?

I guess it's like people Tiger, balanced diet with 5 fruit & veg a day!! It's horrible to think of the harm we did by feeding all this white bread to the birds, on another thread there were odd white feathers on Corvids caused by eating too much Junk food!! I think they were called Stress feathers.