Lots of people discard their chewing gum on the ground how dangerous is this to birds.
Steve, I assume you have seen the photo doing the rounds on Facebook. While I do not disagree with the sentiment that spitting gum out onto pavements is a revolting habit, the photo irritates me on a number of fronts 1) it is a pair of swallows 2) the photo was of one of the pair 'grieving' for it's mate after it had been hit by a car 3) the photographer is not credited 4) there has been no scientific evidence presented to support the statement 5) Chewing gum esp. the sugar free stuff with Xylitol is very dangerous to dogs. I have never spotted pigeons paying much attention to gum and given they are the most frequently spotted town/city birds who can spot a sandwich crumb at 50 paces I would have thought there would be huge amounts of evidence.
Caroline in Jersey
Cin J
Thanks, It was the FB photo and just needed to check facts before had words with a friend who shared it.
Oh I'm so pleased I don't use Farcebook! Lol!!! Ignorance is bliss! :-)
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
My photos on Flickr
Now I have got over my rant, I can imagine that a young, inexperienced bird might peck at discarded gum and that it could cause problems similar to young fledglings trying to eat whole peanuts but I will leave it to someone more knowledgeable to come up with the facts and figures.