Bird feeder
Birdhouses are covered feeders for wild birds, which are stocked with birdseed. Usually birdhouse made of wood; to cover its most spitzgiebelig landscaped roofs is weatherproof material, mostly tar paper used. The garden design aspect of birdhouses contrast is seen for example in ornaments that are available for license plate of human work or residence sites, such as stylized chimneys.
Preferably, the feeding takes place in winter. Especially in England, but also in other European countries, there is a continuing trend towards customized Ganzjahreszufütterung. The newly symbolized above all by the birdhouses winter feeding is the subject of an ongoing discussion because the wild birds by an additional, not really natural source of food is offered, even if it were, domestic feed use.
Skeptics argue that the winter feeding was basically superfluous, what about it has become clear that, despite the very willing acceptance of the offered feed, anyway continue to look for the birds in the area for food and find themselves in frozen ground and snow often enough it would. In addition, a potential influence of natural selection of weak and sick animals by humans is feared. Contrast, proponents point out that today's economic influenced civilization and cultural landscape the birds no longer could offer an original, natural environment. Hence they would be at least temporarily dependent on a feeding. On top of that negative consequences of winter feeding were actually undetectable. For this, the educational value of the winter feeding is highlighted, after which the people would allow a straightforward encounter with him has become increasingly alien to nature. Within this discussion also ornithological untenable arguments are brought forth from both sides thoroughly. Around the occasional skeptical fear through the winter feeding frequent, year-round occurring bird species would receive an advantage over migratory birds. Because the latter could be found by the locally high concentrations of the stationary species no longer breeding site. A significant Nistplatzkonkurrenz exists between the few for such a case at all eligible train and annual species of birds, however, naturally hardly. It is also probably the claim of some proponents, the winter feeding would be considered a fundamentally consolidating effect on located declining species than questionable. In order to gain more data about the importance of birdhouses for birds in winter, the country's federal government for bird protection lead in Bavaria ( LBV) and BirdLife Austria by the hour of the winter birds.
Order in any case at the sight of wild birds continue to delight, a commonly services mentioned above compromise proposal has been to feed only in hard phases of the winter, but not in principle always. An always useful and less discussion needy measure, it should also be to let abgeblühte perennials standing through the winter so the birds can pick out hidden insects and seeds.
The popular feeding the bird house is not the same as the rest with a sometimes carried out in forestry and fruit growing winter feeding. The winter feeding is part of an overall concept, which has a locally concentrated settlement of certain bird species to the target so that they so a problematic insecticide use is avoided if possible in the spring to counteract the spread of certain pest caterpillars. In addition, the bird and wait state bird waiting lead times through a winter feeding for scientific purposes.