You May Want To Think Twice Before Adding This Kitchen Scrap To Your Bird Feeder

When putting out food for your feathered friends, kitchen scraps like nuts and rice can be great options; however, not all human foods are safe for wild birds. While some may put out coffee grounds or beans for birds, this could end up doing more harm than good. Coffee beans and grounds do contain some beneficial components, such as fatty acids, antioxidants, and proteins, but the caffeine in them could prove dangerous for birds.

A 2022 study published in the scholarly journal Veterinary Research Forum looked at the effects of caffeine on pigeons and found that smaller doses caused intoxication in the birds, while larger doses resulted in respiratory, gastrointestinal, renal, and neurological symptoms. Some of the pigeons in the study experienced severe symptoms, such as seizures, and others died from the caffeine. Though some wild birds eat the berries from coffee plants, spreading coffee grounds or beans outside for your feathered friends might make them sick. Rather than taking the risk, it's probably best to stick to other leftover foods to feed the birds in your yard.

Though coffee grounds are used as fertilizer in gardens and have a variety of other uses around the home, there are many safer options for scraps to add to your bird feeder. If your feathered friends happen to eat a small amount of leftover coffee grounds, they probably won't face any serious harm. After all, used coffee grounds have significantly less caffeine than coffee beans or fresh coffee grounds, but this energizing stimulant isn't always healthy for birds. To reiterate our earlier point, some wild birds eat berries from coffee plants, which do give them some caffeine and can even benefit their taxing travels just like it benefits humans' energy levels, but the birds that eat these in the wild and ones in your backyard are likely very different species. So, ultimately, this is a better-safe-than-sorry scenario.

More specifically, caffeine can be hard on birds' hearts. The birds visiting your backyard probably wouldn't consume enough coffee grounds to kill them, but continually feeding them your coffee scraps probably isn't the healthiest option. It would be extremely difficult to track how much the birds are eating or if the caffeine is affecting them negatively, so it's probably wise to avoid it altogether.

It's still important to provide your feathered friends with regular bird seed to ensure they're getting a well-rounded diet, but adding a few healthy kitchen scraps can provide them not only a tasty treat but also a boost of nutrients. Cooked rice or pasta with no sauce or seasonings can help birds get more carbohydrates, while all varieties of nuts are great sources of protein. Hard cheeses that have started to get stale but are not rotten or moldy can also give your friends a quick energy boost, as cheese contains both proteins and fats.

It may seem surprising, but eggshells are also beneficial to birds because of their calcium content, though you may need to crush the shells before adding them to your feeder. Birds also love to munch on fruit, but make sure to take it away if it begins to spoil. Many people throw bread crumbs outside for birds, but this isn't always healthy due to the sodium and sugar content of commercial bread products in the United States.