The potential virtue of garden bird feeders: More birds in citizen backyards close to intensive agricultural landscapes

• Published in: Biological conservation 2018-06, Vol.222, p.14-20
• Main Authors: Pierret, Pauline, Jiguet, Frédéric
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural intensification; Biodiversity and Ecology; Citizen science; Countryside; Environmental Sciences; Food supply
• ISSN: 0006-3207; 1873-2917
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.03.033

Farmland bird abundances have been declining for decades, an erosion associated with agricultural changes. Main drivers have already been identified: intensification of practices, modification of landscapes, leading to impoverished summer and winter food availability. In parallel, winter bird feeding in private gardens became a common practice. Such a food supplementation may represent a bonanza for seed-deprived bird communities. Using data collected by citizen providing food to wintering birds in >1100 backyards, we analyzed the temporal and spatial trends in abundance of 30 species at feeders during four core winters periods and along a gradient of local agriculture intensification. Garden feeders located within intensively cultivated landscapes attracted more birds, the relationship being strongest for farmland species. We further found a temporal trend which strengthens this pattern as the winter progresses. These results confirm that supplying winter food to garden birds has not only a recreational value, but can also improve bird numbers hence probably winter survival rates, chiefly in intensive agricultural landscapes. •Feeding birds in winter is a common practice in private backyards and impacts of such supplementary feeding have been debated.•Farmland birds are not abundant at garden feeders in winter, but small variations in their numbers vehicles important ecological information.•Garden feeders located close to intensively cultivated landscapes attracted more birds, a relationship strongest for farmland species.•This pattern strengthened as the winter progresses, in line with the food depletion theory.•Supplying winter food to garden birds can help birds to thrive the winter, especially farmland birds close to intensive agriculture.