Birds Love Rich British People

5 years ago Nature

Much like Gwyneth Paltrow or Madonna, birds prefer to be around wealthy British people.

greatitA Great Tit on a bird feeder. Image by Andrzej Jab?ecki A recent study found that the population of birds in urban areas of Britain is directly related to the wealth of the area. Simply put, the wealthier an area is, the more likely it is to have larger populations of birds such as blue tits, coal tits, and great tits, all of whom are particularly attracted to bird feeders. Yes, that means you’re more likely to find a lot of great tits in wealthy areas. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get back to the science.

There’s a relatively simple explanation behind the higher bird populations in wealthier areas. Rich people can afford to spend their money on things like feeding birds. Wealthy Brits are far more likely to care about the birds and to feed them. Poorer people are more concerned with paying rent and buying groceries than installing bird feeders.

The research team studied Sheffield’s wealthy suburbs and city centre, and then compared these rich areas with poorer Sheffield neighbourhoods. In some of the least shocking news ever, the Sheffield University scientists found that a higher concentration of bird feeders in an area led to an increase in bird population, independent of factors like large yards or parks being present in the area. They also found many more bird feeders in wealthier areas than in poorer ones.

The study was published in the journal Diversity and Distributions. There is an estimated 60,000 tons of food left out for birds by people in Britain every year. Interestingly enough, the study found that, although the population of birds is affected by the presence of bird feeders, the range of birds is not. You could stick bird feeders in a straight line from the tropics to the freezing latitudes and the birds will still live in the same places they always have.

Info from Telegraph

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Written by: Chris

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Comments

Old Comments

FLU-BIRD says

Dec 14th, 2008 at 12am
Becuase in theor areas they can indeed afford to ffed the birds and have plenty of places for them to shelter and nest

Shaun Rosenberg says

May 27th, 2008 at 12am
That is funny, I'm suprised the birds do not build nests near the food. You would think they would want to live near the food.

Tyler Petroelje says

Feb 16th, 2008 at 12am
Yea, So this Study Was Done By Whom? Did they Go to a University? -- Honestly This is one of the worst examples of observational ecology I have Seen. I mean Seriously If their was a wealthy urban sky rise would you see more Birds around the building because it is wealthy or would you see more birds on a local rural farm even though it's "poor"? The correlation lies in the landscape and feed available not the wealth. Kinda a bad assumption to say that the blue collar workers of your society don't care about birds.

Absolute Vengeance says

Feb 15th, 2008 at 12am
"birds such as blue tits, coal tits, and great tits, all of whom are particularly attracted" AHAHAHAHAHAHA TITS - stumble upon really sux today ALL HAIL ABSOLUTE VENGEANCE

Tim Fox says

Feb 15th, 2008 at 12am
Absolute Vengeance, you totally suck, as does your band. Please grow some pubic hairs.

Nataly Short says

Feb 13th, 2008 at 12am
A large part of birds that were fond through the study must leave on the ground of Sir Richard Brandson who is investing some of his money to populate his own land with local animals.

MyGodYoureDumb says

Feb 13th, 2008 at 12am
This has to be THE stupidest article with THE most erroneous conclusions I have EVER read! The birds are attracted to the greenlands that tends to surround rich urban areas.. NOT because they are rich but because it is green, with trees and soft ground for food gathering.. The rich tend not to live in inner city sprawls the poor do.. if the poor lived in green urban areas then the birds would be attracted to the poor.. LOL YOUR ARTICLE IS A WASTE OF DIGITAL SPACE.

Robert says

Feb 13th, 2008 at 12am
thanks for that, mygod, but if you read the article you'll see that the research was done in urban Sheffield and that the findings found that bird feeders meant higher bird populations "independent of factors like large yards or parks being present in the area." So it isn't just the grass.

John says

Feb 13th, 2008 at 12am
We use to feed the birds at our home in Dallas as I was growing up. We had a continuous population of different birds year round. Our neighbor always marveled at how many birds were always around our back yard. One day a light apparently went off in his head whereby he asked if we fed them. Feeding is the secret to having lots of birds around. It is really a good thing to do. (I always wanted them to develop a feed that immediately killed English sparrows while not harming other birds though!)

yeah, really dumb says

Feb 13th, 2008 at 12am
I second that - how could anyone draw any "scientific" conclusions from this information? Two out of the four paragraphs in this article make it sound so juvenile that even a teenager could pick out the glaring weaknesses. "Rich people can afford to spend their money on things like feeding birds. Wealthy Brits are far more likely to care about the birds and to feed them. Poorer people are more concerned with paying rent and buying groceries than installing bird feeders." Who are you to say what "poorer people" do and do not care about, and how is that scientifically relevant to this "study"? So rich people buy feeders. That doesn't make birds attracted to rich people's areas. Birds are attracted to food. I guarantee you'll find large populations of crows and other scavengers in poor areas, where they might be taking advantage of excess garbage left outside. And even worse: " Interestingly enough, the study found that, although the population of birds is affected by the presence of bird feeders, the range of birds is not. You could stick bird feeders in a straight line from the tropics to the freezing latitudes and the birds will still live in the same places they always have." Hmm, that's curious - rich neighborhoods with an abundance of free sunflower seeds are not motivation enough for a bird to ignore its entire instinctual motivation to stay in a particular climate? Damn, I was hoping to put some exotic fruit in my yard in the hopes of attracting a couple parrots...despite the foot of snow in my yard. Oh well.