Observations at backyard bird feeders influence the emotions and actions of people that feed birds

People and Nature

article

Ashley A. Dayer¹  Connor Rosenblatt¹  David N. Bonter²  Holly Faulkner²  Richard J. Hall³  Wesley M. Hochachka²  Tina B. Phillips²  Dana M. Hawley⁴ 

[1] Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation;Cornell Lab of Ornithology;Odum School of Ecology and Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia;Department of Biological Sciences

关键词: bird feeding;    citizen science;    emotions;    human behaviour;    human–wildlife interactions;    resource provisioning;   

DOI  :  10.1002/pan3.17

学科分类：护理学

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY