About Us

Why do an estimated 65 million Americans feed wild birds? We feed wild birds to supplement their natural diet and provide us with entertainment. Food items are selected more for their ability to entice birds to a feeding site than their contribution Blue Jay

to the nutritional needs of wild birds. These include a variety of seed mixes and suet cakes incorporating tidbits to attract particular species. Several years ago it occurred to us that we were not approaching the activity of feeding wild birds in the same manner as animal care professionals, and as current and former animal care professionals ourselves, perhaps we ought to be. When we considered the feeding of wild birds from the perspective of animal care professionals, a number of significant issues immediately became evident. Perhaps most important of all are the nutritional needs of wild birds and how well the typical diets offered them meet these needs? Wild birds are maintained in captivity in zoos and aviaries. From aviary keepers, we learned of a very important study that was conducted by the Comparative Nutrition Group at Michigan State University (Ullrey, Allen and Baer, 1991). This study compared extruded formulated diets with seed mixtures in meeting the nutritional needs of captive psittacines (parrots). While psittacines are exotic cage birds as opposed to wild birds in the U.S., we believe that much of the data and certainly the principles are applicable to wild bird feeding. This study addresses three important factors in feeding birds; (1) the nutritional needs of birds, (2) the nutritional composition of typical diets, and (3) the feed preferences of birds.

According to Ullrey et al., in the absence of specific nutritional studies on parrots, the nutritional requirements for precocial birds, as presented by the National Research Council, provide a minimum nutrient baseline. It seems to us at Nature’s Keepers that the NRC nutritional requirements are also minimally adequate for wild birds. At the very least such a diet represents a significant improvement over the typical diets currently offered to wild birds.

Commercial seed mixes for wild birds are determined primarily by two factors; cost and appeal to consumers. Nutritional composition is not a major concern since the diets are not intended to provide all of a bird’s nutrition. The type and relative proportions of the seeds incorporated in the mix determine its cost. Economy mixes contain higher proportions of seeds like wheat, milo, oats, rice, and cracked corn that are generally unattractive to the majority of wild birds (Geis and Hyde, 1983). Ullrey et al. point out that even “[a]ssuming that a cultivated seed mixture could be assembled that would meet nutrient needs if completely consumed, it is difficult to prevent preferential self-selection of favored but nutritionally unbalanced foods.”

Our research into the feeding preferences of wild birds uncovered three very important studies. In 1980 a study was conducted of relative feeding preferences of wild birds at feeders (Geis, 1980). This study was expanded in 1980 – 81 and published in 1983 (Geis and Hyde, 1983). The studies consisted of presenting different seeds in experimental feeders such that the only variable was the seed type. Essentially, both studies demonstrated that most wild birds frequenting feeders preferred black oil sunflower and white proso millet. In effect, these two seed types alone could meet the preferences of most of the species of wild birds that typically frequent feeders. However, as the work of Ullrey et al. indicates, they do not provide a nutritionally balanced diet.

Ullrey et al. provided a clue as to why wild birds make such nutritionally poor choices. “Since indigenous psittacines coevolved with their food supply, their choices in an undegraded habitat represent a nutritional wisdom built on generations of experience (emphasis added)”. This is a very profound statement. While this study refers specifically to psittacines, it is also relevant for virtually any living organism. Indigenous bird species, like psittacines, coevolved with their food supply in an undegraded habitat and their food preferences reflected their multigenerational nutritional wisdom. Then came the invasion by Europeans with a cultural vision that necessitated the reconstruction of virtually the entire continent. For indigenous wildlife, the impact was nothing less than catastrophic. The agriculture industry has been enormously successful at replacing many indigenous species with exotic livestock, crops, and weeds. Vast areas of wilderness habitat that supported a wide diversity of plant and animal species are now devoted to monoculture in which one species is cultivated to the exclusion of all others. What happened to the habitat in which wild bird species coevolved with their food supply? It was not only degraded; it was destroyed.

We are still degrading wild habitats in the name of development. As a result, the nutritional wisdom of indigenous birds is compromised. Furthermore, without their instinctive wisdom to guide them, how can they make nutritionally sound choices? It is true that over an evolutionary time period measured in numerous generations, their nutritional wisdom may adapt to the new food supply. It may have already happened. It is also possible that some species will simply become extinct or reduced to small isolated populations surviving in equally small isolated habitats. This situation exists because of us and we believe we have a moral obligation to do more than offer supplemental feeding designed to provide us with entertainment.

The development of human civilization has in effect rendered much of the plant and animal life on our planet dependent to one degree or another on humans. Wildlife, like Native Americans before them, are being forced onto reservations surrounded by human development. Being confined in a degraded habitat renders them, to one degree or another, dependent on their captors for their survival. We believe all of us have an ethical obligation to ameliorate our impact on them. In the case of wild birds that translates into providing food to compensate for the disruption of their indigenous food supply. Not just a supplementary diet designed mainly for our benefit, but a complete diet that meets the basic nutritional needs of the birds.

We have developed a product that meets the basic nutritional needs of wild birds. While our diets incorporate food items like black-stripe sunflower and white proso millet seeds that will entice wild birds to feed, the bulk of the diets consist of natural grain flours formulated to meet the minimum nutritional needs of wild birds on a year round basis. The food cake can be used as is in suet feeders or crumbled up for feeding on platform feeders. We invite you to join us as “nature’s keepers” by offering your feathered friends a nutritionally complete diet.

Geis, Aelred D. 1980. “Relative Attractiveness of Different Foods at Wild Bird Feeders.” U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Special Scientific Report No. 233. 11 pp.________ , 1983. Wild Bird Feeding Preferences. National Wildlife Federation, Wash. D.C. 6 pp.

Ullrey, Duane E., Mary E. Allen, and David J. Baer. 1991. "Formulated Diets Versus Seed Mixtures for Psittacines." Journal of Nutrition 121: S193-S205.

"The Responsible Suet Alternative"