Why We Do NOT Feed The Ducks
Bread and birdseed do not contain the nutrients required to keep native birds healthy. They do contain additives that are not part of the diet of our indigenous birds. The wrong types of food and a lack of required nutrients can cause birds to become sickly, less resistant to disease and less able to escape predators such as cats and foxes.
Birds become dependant on handouts and will no longer forage for their "natural" foods.
Bread attracts other pests:
Birds: Mynas, Starlings, Turtle-doves etc. These feral pests aggressively compete for available food and nesting sites. They force more timid native birds out of the area.
Fish: Bread is consumed by feral fish such as carp and mosquito fish. These fish also cause conditions which lead to destruction of habitat for native water-life by, for instance, muddying the water and eating the larvae of beneficial insects and crustaceans.
Other pests: Whatever is left over becomes food for vermin such as mice, rats, flies, cockroaches and European Wasps.
Food handouts attract Domestic feral ducks which
can, and do, cross-breed with native ducks. In New Zealand the population
of native pure-bred Black Ducks is under serious threat due to cross-breeding
with feral ducks.
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