Bird study buttresses my faith in Mom and Dad

I never even knew that feeding birds was controversial, at least outside of pigeons in the city.

One of my earliest and fondest childhood memories of observing a good deed is watching my mother clear away a patch of snow in the back yard so birds could better access the bread crumbs she would spread for them to eat. Sandwich crusts were never tossed in the garbage at my house, as they would be crumbled and placed into an empty milk carton for later distribution.

She'd send us out to do the feeding sometimes, and I distinctly recall feeling good about it.

Mom's been gone awhile now, but Dad still feeds birds big-time, witness the camel-like hump of earth under the front-yard tree from which hangs his seed dispenser and drops enough poop to alter topography. (Dad's not going to do the bread-crumb thing.)

I've always associated bird feeding with the best that human beings have to offer.

So imagine my shock at reading this story from LiveScience, which in addition to revealing research making the case that feeding by humans benefits bird reproduction, also introduced me to the fact that some bird experts believe that what my Mom and Dad did and do is just plain wrong.

You can probably guess that I'm no member of the Audubon Society.

From the article:

For species such as the scrubjay, eating food provided by humans seems to mean that more nestlings die and those that do leave the nest are less fit because there's no steady food supply for the baby birds.

"All that human food is not appropriate for nestlings," said Reed Bowman of the Archbold Biological Station in Florida, who likened the situation to human babies having specific dietary needs. "We don't feed babies potato chips and beer."

As with virtually everything about human health, the bird experts simply cannot agree either.

So I'm going with this author of the study showing reproductive benefits:

"These results demonstrate that feeding birds in gardens over winter can be vital to their breeding success," said study team member Dan Chamberlain of the British Trust for Ornithology.

I have no doubt that Mom would be proud of my decision.