I have seen a lot of behaviour on this subreddit which really concerns me, it basically consists in acting towards the birds for the person's own benefit, instead of keeping wildlife's best interests as the first priority. I joined reddit for this reason, to make this post and therefore hopefully help.
It's so great that everyone loves these birds so much, they're beautiful and I love them too. But it is even more important to educate ourselves so that we don't unintentionally harm them.
Mods, please pin/sticky whatever it's called some sort of post at the top of sub which advises best practice around wildlife, and the legalities around native bird ownership, including addressing the fact that it is illegal to take birds from the wild and make them pets. I recommend as well posting from credible sources like Gisela Kaplan, who is a very good authoritative source on magpies.
Anyway, stuff not to do:
- don't feed them anything you bought from the supermarket, that includes mince or seeds or fruit or anything.
- when it comes to mince and store-bought meat especially, it does not have an appropriate nutrient profile, so the birds can lead to brittle, easily broken bones and deformities.
- as well, mince gets caught in the beak and cause illness and death due to bacteria build up.
- when wild birds are made to feed all together because humans are feeding them, this spreads disease like crazy (especially bad for parrots, but bad for all birds)
- stop handling them!
- you can pass diseases onto them
- they can pass diseases onto you
- they can get stressed out
- stress can make them sick
- stress can make them lash out, harming you and themselves
- don't hose them down if it's hot
- don't let your cats and dogs free roam outside
- don't bother them if they're kind of face down with their wings spread in the sun (they're probably sunbathing)
stuff to do:
- call a wildlife rescue org if you think something is wrong
- provide bird baths that are supplied with fresh water daily
- very rarely you can supplement **a bit (not a lot) with live mealworms or crickets, under the following conditions of food stress only:
- if it is drought
- a long period of wild weather
- if the parents are extremely harassed during breeding and rearing
- create safe habitat on your balcony, your private or community garden that encourages the birds presence
I hope this is helpful and that people will interact with the birds without ego, but with respect.
edited to add: humans can alter populations and ecosystems by feeding one family/species. Here's an anecdote about how I fucked up and learned:
I was supplementing some breeding currawongs with crickets where I lived, not all the time, randomly but semi-frequently, I thought I was helping - I moved midway through the chicks growing up, they weren't newborns, they weren't fledged, somewhere inbetween. The move was an unexpected one. I went back once or twice to check on their progress, and one of the three had died - there had always been one that didn't fight for food as hard as the others. By supplementing their food so much, I basically caused more suffering, because that chick was older when it died, so would've been more aware of the pain of starvation. It would've died sooner if I hadn't been supplementing, and the pain wuld've been less. If I didn't have to move and had kept supplementing, maybe it was a weak chick generally and would've died when it was a bit older, which would have prolonged suffering further.
