# Those little birds are HUNGRY

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-birds-are-hungry/561707>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 23, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-birds-are-hungry/561707 "2010-11-23T21:51:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-birds-are-hungry/561707/1 "2010-11-23T21:51:04Z")

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Winter hit us here in Calgary last week, lows in the - 20 C range, lots of snow, terrifying roads. To think it was warm enough for me to wear shorts the day before the snow came too.

Anyway, the poor little birds (house sparrows I think?) in our back yard were puffed up like balls and looking pathetic, so I went and got some winter birdseed for the feeder which has been empty since late summer and a chunk of suet to hang in a tree.

Holy crap it has been a zoo out there. Must be a hundred birds in our backyard. That bird feeder is probably 6 liters and they can empty it in a day and a half. Squirrel is busy with the overflow, and Little Kitty is enthralled. She perches in the bush beside them and fantasizes about one flying just close enough to catch.

I am going to have to buy the big mega Costco size bag of seed I guess.

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**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-birds-are-hungry/561707/2 "2010-11-23T21:57:22Z")

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Bird feeder visible through a window = Cat TV

Bird feeder 12 inches off the ground = Cat feeder

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-birds-are-hungry/561707/3 "2010-11-23T22:08:49Z")

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Remember though birds are notorious bullies. A few of the dominant ones will eat everything and chase the others off, so if you want to be fair, spread the seed around. Yeah I know it’a bit much, but still at the holiday season you want the birdies to play fair don’t you 🙂

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**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-birds-are-hungry/561707/4 "2010-11-23T22:16:28Z")

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The birds haven’t played fair - sparrows have pushed bluebirds out of their habitat around here.

They are an invasive species, and while I won’t go out of my way to kill them I won’t feed them either.

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**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-little-birds-are-hungry/561707/5 "2010-11-23T22:25:41Z")

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I’ve been throwing stale bread and crackers and such out for them, and the stale food seems to disappear in minutes. I don’t know if it’s birds or squirrels, but there are some hungry critters in my yard, too. I just trimmed some pork fat off, and threw that out for them, too - see if that goes.