Do exotic birds dominate feeding at garden food stations in Melbourne in winter?
| Posted: |
25/11/2016 |
| Author(s): |
Alan Lill, Chanaka Ruwandeniya |
Deliberate feeding of wild birds is common in urban Australia and supposedly has both costs and benefits for the
birds and the humans that feed them. If urban domestic garden food stations are dominated by common exotic species,
they may ultimately not promote, or even reduce, urban native bird species diversity. However, too few investigations
have been conducted in Australia to permit a thorough evaluation of this possibility. Twelve established bird food
stations in suburban gardens in Melbourne, Australia were visited in one winter by 18 bird species, five of which were
exotic. Introduced Spotted Doves
Streptopelia chinensis, Common Mynas
Sturnus tristis and Rock Doves
Columba
livia, together with native Noisy Miners
Manorina melanocephala, were the most prominent users of stations providing
bread. Spotted Doves numerically dominated feeding at stations that provided seed, but three native species were also
quite prominent feeders at some such stations. Bread and seed stations were exploited by fairly distinct bird species
assemblages. On average, approximately six high-intensity inter-specific agonistic interactions per hour occurred at a
food station, involving 20 species combinations overall. However, only one third of encounters were between an exotic
and a native bird. Displacement of native birds from food stations by exotic birds was substantially less common than
the reverse event. Thus feeding at urban garden food stations was dominated by exotic birds, but some native birds also
exploited them substantially and were not disproportionately aggressively displaced from them by exotics.
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