Journal
PEOPLE AND NATURE
Volume 1, Issue 2, Pages 138-151Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/pan3.17
Keywords
bird feeding; citizen science; emotions; human behaviour; human-wildlife interactions; resource provisioning
Categories
Funding
- Virginia Tech Global Change Center
- Virginia Tech Institute for Society
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Backyard bird feeding is one of the most common ways people engage with wildlife in many parts of the world. Given its scale, it can have profound consequences for the ecology of feeder birds and their behaviour. While previous work has primarily explored socio-demographic factors associated with bird feeding, how observations of nature at backyard feeders (e.g. changes in feeder bird abundance, interaction with natural enemies and weather) influence people's propensity to feed birds remain largely unknown. We examined the association between peoples' observations at their backyard feeders and their emotions and behaviours related to providing food to birds. We conducted an online survey of a subset of United States participants in Project FeederWatch, a large-scale citizen science project. Overwhelmingly, respondents (n = 1,176) reported taking actions, such as managing predators or maintaining feeders, in response to observable natural factors (e.g. increased incidence of disease, the presence of predators, increased bird abundance). Additionally, respondents described a variety of emotional responses to the scenarios of depredation or disease at their feeders, some of which (particularly anger) had a small association with whether a respondent would take action in response. Respondents generally believed that their bird feeding benefits backyard birds (e.g. by improving overwinter survival and overall health), and indicated that natural factors (e.g. bird abundance, disease prevalence) and abiotic factors (i.e. cold temperature) had more of an influence on how much they feed birds than internal constraints such as time and money. These findings suggest that human behaviour with respect to bird feeding is coupled to observations of nature, which could lead to feedbacks between provisioning intensity and ecological dynamics. Overall, our results have important implications for bird conservation and for understanding the potential benefits that humans receive from provisioning birds. A plain language summary is available for this article. Plain Language Summary
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available