Thanks to everyone for providing good comments on t his subject. I went online
and found a blog called Laura's Birding Blog. Since I've had problems with
posting links, I'll just copy and paste the article but it does mention
something that Sandy Peterson has suggested: using the same sugar solution that
we make for hummingbirds. That is a quarter cup of sugar to one cup of water.
(1/4 cup Sugar/1 cup of water.) There is also other ideas in the blog. Thank
you Sandy.
Blog: "Back in spring 2004, we had an extreme cold spell in May, right at the
peak of warbler, tanager, and oriole migration. Suddenly people were finding
dead insectivores on walks through the woods, and my yard was simply hopping
with birds, including a wayward Bobolink, 7+ Baltimore Orioles, 5+ Scarlet
Tanagers, and 30+ Cape May Warblers all visible at any one time. I went through
a huge number of mealworms, and vast quantities of suet, sunflower seed, white
millet, and jelly. I've been feeding grape jelly for many years. When my
23-year-old daughter was a preschooler, she'd come home from Montessori school
wanting a "pickanic" lunch. I'd fix a sandwich and set her up at the "pickanic"
table. On the same table was the orange bowl pictured above (we've had these
orange bowls for decades--they came free in dog food), with a plop of grape
jelly. And every day while Katie sat there, in flew a catbird to feed at the
table right alongside her. When I went out, the catbird wouldn't come anywhere
near, but for some reason it approved of my tiny daughter. That orange bowl of
jelly was EXTREMELY popular in 2004, when birds were cold and food-stressed!
Anyway, I've long fed jelly to birds. I plop it out in very small amounts
usually, because it gets buggy fast and I'm sure bacteria thrives in it, so I
don't like having out more than birds can eat in a day. But that spring with
all those birds, one morning I filled that bowl half full with jelly because I
was going to be gone for several hours and the temperature was in the teens.
When I came home, I found a Red-breasted Nuthatch close to death, mired in the
jelly so that the only parts sticking out were his beak and eyes. I fished him
out and spent hours washing him in warm water, toweling him dry, and allowing
him to preen, over and over, until he was releasable. I felt horrible about
that, and ever since have been cautioning people about setting out only small
amounts of jelly at a time.
But today I got a thoughtful email from Kay Charter, who writes:
I confess that I had a prejudice against this practice [feeding jelly] the
first time I saw it...about twenty years ago in a relative's yard. It just
didn't look right. So I did some digging...as much as it is possible to do,
which isn't much and it certainly hasn't been quantified, but it all makes
sense. One source was a good friend who is an internist...he said that high
sugar foods may trigger a bird's satiety gland, much as it does in children,
causing it to feel satisfied when it has had little in the way of nutritional
value. He also said that sugar may be addictive for birds as it certainly can
be in humans, and that a bird might develop a strong liking for jelly and spend
less time searching for natural foods.
So what's the right answer? I think it's CRITICAL to stop feeding jelly if
Then I queried my friend, Kent Mahaffey, who was manager of the San Diego Wild
Animal Park's famous free-flight Bird Show for more than two decades. Kent had
primary care responsibility for hundreds of birds from many families. He said
he would never allow any birds under his care to have jelly. He added the
following:
* In general, any food that exceeds the balance of sucrose in a bird's
natural diet is suspect. Natural nectars contain 12% to 30% sugars, while
jams and jellies are more than half sugar. He also said that higher than
normal sugar loads may outstrip a bird's ability to adequately process the
sugar (as it does in humans); and products high in sugars are an ideal
environment for bacterial growth.
He summarized as follows: "Birds developed the way they did by adapting to the
environments in which they lived and the foods that sustained them. We do our
best for them when we stick as closely as possible to their natural diets."
I know that people have been doing this for decades with no apparent ill
effects. But since there is no way to check the effect on internal organs, or,
as Kent suggested, bactarial growth, it just seems wise to me to stick with
Kent's suggestion...which is to offer foods that are as close as possible to
what they evolved with.
SBTH recommends an alternative: grapes. Birds love them, and they have real
nutrients, not just sugar.
The bottom line is that while we don't know how this affects our birds, it may
(as Kent and my doc friend suggested) be harmful. Why take the chance?
Thanks,
Kay
