Do garden birds earn their keep?
This is an experiment to see whether feeding birds in your garden increases the numbers of insects eaten. The experiment is now underway (June to July 2010) and so we are no longer looking for more volunteers for this work. We have kept this page up for reference purposes.
Background information
The experiment has particular relevance to the gardeners amongst us. It has been suggested that fewer insects are present near where birds gather because the birds eat some of these bugs. Wild birds coming to gardens because of the feeders that we provide for them may be an example of this in action. It may be that birds act as a natural form of pest control!
The experiment
In order to test whether birds really do eat more insects near to feeders, we sought volunteers in Reading kind enough to let us carry out a simple experiment in your garden, whether you feed birds or not.
The project started in June 2010 and will continue for about four weeks (with opportunities to continue with further projects after this).
We put some potted dwarf broad bean plants with pea aphids on and mounted on poles in the volunteer gardens. We will be counting how many aphids are left every three days for up to four weeks. Half of the plants are caged to protect them from birds. We will also carry out insect surveys of your garden (these may take place some time after the experiment).
If you don't feed birds or don't mind stopping during the experiment...
If you don't feed birds, or do not feed them in the spring/summer, this is all that we would like to do. The numbers of aphids on your bean plants will be compared to those in gardens with feeders and so form a vital part of the experiment as we want to look for differences between the aphids on plants where birds are fed and where they are not.
If you do feed birds....
If you do feed birds (or would like to for the experiment), we will also provide you with a feeder (this will also be on a pole) and seed for the length of the experiment. During this time, it is very important that you use only this feeder and seed and do not put out any other food for the birds in your garden.
Once this experiment has ended you can then also take part in the Reading Bird Feeding Survey if you wish. There will also be opportunities to take part in other further studies if you are happy to continue but it is fine just to take part in this experiment. Future work will cover many topics but is likely to include comparing different types of bird food and small mammal surveys.
All images © Mark Fellowes