Or are RSPB's recent concern another example of our incorrect perspective on health, and how we maintain it - both in humans, other animals, and even plants?
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has recently said that their long-time recommendation to provide feeding stations to provide additional food for birds is not necessarily a good thing. This link takes you to their article, and a video, that explains their new position.
“Research has shown a worrying decline in some of our much-loved garden birds due to a disease called trichomonosis. This is a highly contagious disease and can spread where birds gather in large numbers such as at bird feeders”.
And this is the BBC’s slant on their new policy, typical of how it has been covered in the mainstream media, warning that “putting up bird feeders in your garden may seem kind but it could be putting some species at serious risk”. And they continue with this warning.
“Trichomonosis is caused by a parasite that affects the mouth, throat and upper digestive tracts of birds and can make it hard for them to eat, drink or breathe”.
My problem with this new guidance is that it is based on conventional medicine’s understanding of the cause of infectious disease.
Natural health therapies and conventional medicine take a different approaches to health and the causes of illness and disease. Whilst natural therapies focus on the central importance of our immune system (we all have one, humans, birds, and plants) and the way it protects us, conventional (drug based) medicine focuses of the danger of germs, the transmission illness (via germs) from one individual to another, and the need to protect ourselves from them.
So do bird feeders cause disease? They might do.
Do diseases picked up from feeders pass from bird to bird? They might do.
And do we need to spend more time on the hygiene of bird stations? It would do no harm. But do we need to obsess about it?
Natural medical therapies would suggest that only those birds whose immune system is weak, or compromised, are at risk.
It is broadly accepted that there are three main reasons for the immune system to become weak or compromised.
Poor or inadequate nutrition.
Insufficient rest, too much stress.
A lack of exercise.
(Personally, I would add a fourth reason for humanity - the consumption of pharmaceutical drugs).
So lets consider each of these, and consider how they apply to birds.
Exercise
It is difficult to believe that the decline in bird populations, and any susceptibility to disease, is the result of a lack of exercise! They can fly anywhere they want, whenever they want, and they appear to do so! They do not have sedentary jobs! They do not spend hours watching television, or playing on mobile phones! Their food is not provided for them, so they have to search for, and find each and every morsel they eat. So their survival depends on exercise - not least when they are feeding their young.
Stress
It is likely that being a bird is stressful! They have lots of predators, ranging from hawks, to domestic cats, to motor cars, to out EMF transmission, and much more. Each day they have to be concerned about where the next meal is coming from.
Yet, on the other hand, birds probably have a lifestyle that provides them with more rest-time than we humans allow ourselves. They find a place of safety and take time to roost, that is, they spend a sizeable proportion of their time resting and sleeping.
However, the regular and ongoing loss of suitable habitats is now an increasing issue for most bird species. This is recognised as a key issue underlaying the decline in bird populations. I remember once removed a bush in my garden that had a Robin’s nest. In horror I watched the distress of the parent birds, which continued for several days.
Nutrition
Alongside this loss of habitat, and linked with it, nutrition is an important problem faced by many bird species. It is not just the constant need to the search for food, it is a problem exacerbated by human activity.
Flies. The fly population has been decimated in recent years, largely through the profligate human use of insecticides on farms, gardens, et al. No wonder populations of fly-eating birds are dwindling.
Seed. For many birds seeds are an important source of nutrition. Yet much seed is now grown using cultivation methods that require of herbicides? How much toxic residue do birds now consume when foraging for seed? This recent USA article highlights this threat.
So birds do face many problems that might affect their immune system, many of them man-made. Indeed, initially this is why bird feeding stations were introduced, and why so many of us spend large sums of money feeding birds in their gardens. We have been led to believe, for decades now, that this provides an important supplementary food source for them.
These problems can undoubtedly cause damage to the immune system of birds. And this would make them susceptible to germs. These germs can accumulate in feeding stations. And so some compromised birds might be susceptible to diseases like trichomonosis.
Yet for natural medicine the problem is not the germ, it is the harm being caused to the immune system that causes susceptibility to the germs.
So the solution is not to focus on bird diseases, and how bird feeding stations might generate them. We can certainly keep the feeders cleaner, as the RSPB suggest. But we should not be persuaded that our feeders are the main, or even a significant problem to the health and survival of bird populations.
Just as with humans, birds with a strong immune system will survive. We all live with ‘germs’ every moment of the day.
Yet in order to maintain a strong immune system they need our help. Not by removing our feeding stations, or not feeding them during the warmer months - but by ending pesticide use - by controlling domestic cats - by maintaining their habitat - by allowing them to get on with their lives - and yes, by augmenting their feed.
The RSPB’s new approach to feeding birds suffers from the same mistaken belief most people have about ill-health - that there are germs are out there, waiting to pounce, ready to attack us, eager to make us ill. For humans, good health does not come from a bottle of pills, or a vial of vaccine. Nor does good health for birds come from obsessively clean feeding stations!
Good health comes from within - both for us, for all other animals, including birds, and plants too. The best protection against disease for all of us is to look after our immune system - and like us birds can do this quite well for themselves! They can even be trusted to know when, and in what seasons of the year, they need to augment their diet at feeding stations.