Even though some surveys indicate that more than half of UK households feed their locaI birds, providing a national total of 150,000 tonnes of bird food every year, recent research has concluded that such artificial feeding may be at best ineffective and at worst harmful to wild bird populations, for example by spreading disease. 

I am not a professional researcher in this field, but I have had a strong interest in garden birds for many years, and I have been following closely the debate over garden bird feeding. 

Rather than giving intrusive advice telling people how (or whether) to feed their local birds, the aim of this talk is to present the evidence and allow the audience to decide for themselves whether feeding is a triumph or a tragedy. The talk will be in two parts – firstly reviewing the evidence that feeding may be harmful and presenting the case that all feeding should be abandoned; and secondly reviewing evidence to the contrary and asking whether (in spite of recent criticism) such feeding is still valuable in conserving the UK’s threatened bird populations and, if so, under what circumstances.

Doors open 7 pm for start at 7.30 pm, finish by 9.30 pm.

(Photo of Greenfinch: Alan Bevington)