WILDLIFE

Be Kind To Ducks

Feeding bread to ducks and other water birds is being unkind

Ducks, mostly mallards, enjoying their siesta at Thornes Park in West Yorkshire, England. Photo by the author.

The ultimate junk food

Not everyone is aware that bread is an unhealthy food for ducks. This goes for other birds in the wild, whether water birds or garden birds. Feeding them bread is bad.

But I shall focus, this time, on why bread is bad for the water birds.

Being highly processed, bread has no nutrition at all. No wonder why it is regarded as the ultimate junk feed for ducks.

Fattening the birds is dangerous

Ducks: male and female mallards, one crested duck and the other, a Pekin duck. Photo taken by the author at Pontefract Park in West Yorkshire, England.

Bread fattens the ducks. This is dangerous for them.

When they are heavier than their acceptable weight, it would affect their ability to fly.

If they could not fly quickly enough to escape predators, they would be vulnerable to being attacked, or worse, being a meal for raptors.

Bread, aside from potentially causing malnutrition on ducks, also harms the habitat like the lakes, rivers, waterways.