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How and where to take great bird pictures.
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Feeding Birds: Ethics 7 years 6 months ago #660

  • Andrew Browne
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Just wondering on the ethics of using food to attract birds to photograph. I know that water is OK and also too berley for pelagic species, but otherwise thought it was unethical but I've seen a few images posted on BLP where it appears that worms and honeyed water has been used as attractant. Can someone enlighten me.
Cheers AB

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Feeding Birds: Ethics 7 years 6 months ago #667

  • Ian Wilson
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It is my understanding that attracting birds with food is considered unethical these days but I was unable to find the relevant information on the BLP website. Perhaps Georgina could enlighten us, especially as some images in the current comp have been captured using food to attract the birds.
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Feeding Birds: Ethics 7 years 6 months ago #669

  • Glenn Pure
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I had a quick look too and couldn't see anything in BLP policies on this. Our nesting bird and call playback policy does summarise some legislation on this regarding feeding in national parks and reserves. Essentially, it is banned.

Personally, I wouldn't use feed to attract birds for photos although on rare occasions I do put seed out for rosellas in our garden or toss the magpies a morsel - not with photos in mind. Another twist on this is photographing birds that have been attracted in by feed put out by others. That is more vexed although I recently did exactly that at Kingfisher Park in Julatten near Cairns. The owners of this birding accommodation property put lots of feed out on a daily basis to attract birds into the courtyard outside the main accommodation building. I took advantage of this and photographed birds in this location - although I didn't photograph them on the feeders purely for aesthetic reasons. Is that as bad a putting out feed yourself? I reconciled that it wasn't because the feed would be put out anyway. Photographing them in this location also means that contact with people (and feed) would be more limited to one small location potentially lessening disturbance. I still prefer to photograph birds 'in the wild' though.
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Feeding Birds: Ethics 6 years 7 months ago #1298

  • Andrew Browne
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Just logged onto the forum and the BLP website for the first time in many, many months. Happy to be corrected but it appears there is no progress or clarification from the President or his Committee on the subject of ethics......but I may have missed it.
1. Live Food Baits
The use of live food (and even sugar flavoured water) to attract birds to photograph, and BLP's apparent endorsement of a previous Tom Oliver Award winner as highlighted at the most recent Adelaide conference in the bush (but actually city) using this technique for his photography, just phases me out. I gave up fishing because I became appalled with live baiting etc.
2. BLP Current Policy re Call Play Back and Photographing Nesting Birds
When I look at current Birdlife Australian media, I cannot see that BLP has had any influence on either ethical considerations, or actually made an effort to change their habits/reporting in these two matters. I now won't hire guides that resort to call Play Back......but it's rife in the industry. Indeed if I look at some of the images displayed on BLP pages, one can tell that the birds portrayed are reacting to a call Play Back.
As stated, I personally will not use Call Play Back or employ guides that rely on it's use.
I will however continue to in my interpretation of ethics to photograph nesting birds, incl endangered and at risk species, to educate, promote and support their survival. I consider myself and intelligent and educated person and can make my own decisions. To this end I haven't posted any images on the BLP site in recent times.
If BLP have an issue with this then I'm happy and comfortable not to renew by BLP, and even my Birdlife Australia, subscription.
Cheers AB
Cheers AB
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Feeding Birds: Ethics 6 years 7 months ago #1299

  • Glenn Pure
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Hi Andrew
Regarding feeding, we do not have a specific policy except that members must not do anything illegal. This would include feeding birds in national parks in some states. I suspect this issue is considerably more complex and nuanced than call playback. Some work is underway on this although research is apparently sparse:
https://theconversation.com/birdbath-food-or-water-how-to-attract-your-favourite-birds-to-your-garden-70258

The author argues that birds visiting urban areas are very adaptable and that feeding may not necessarily be harmful. It's worth thinking about the destruction and modification humans have done to the environment. You could view feeding birds who visit urban areas (and perhaps bush birds) as undoing some of that damage and giving bird populations a 'leg-up'. But that's just supposition - evidence is lacking. In bush areas, feeding might be more problematic if it is regular and persistent as it will alter behaviour. I doubt that sporadic feeding would be a problem though but that's just my hunch.

As for the BLP policy on call playback and nesting birds, that is fairly clear I think. This is a case of a policy to deal with the minority who might do the wrong thing. Bear in mind that images can still be submitted to BLP of nesting birds and I think where playback has been used but these images will go into non-publicly visible galleries if accepted. I imagine images in these galleries could be provided to organisations like Birdlife if needed for campaigns etc but I'm not across the details of how we administer that. I do know Birdlife is strongly interested in making greater use of BLP and its image resources for bird advocacy work.

Also note that being a member of Birdlife is now *not* a requirement to join BLP. Of course, you will make your own decisions about what memberships you wish to continue but I'd personally consider it a loss if you decided to disengage from BLP.

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Feeding Birds: Ethics 6 years 7 months ago #1300

  • Andrew Browne
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Thanks Glenn for your promt reply. On reflection, my objection is basically the live baiting and the use of wires/hooks etc to keep them in place and allow adequate time for the photographer to get his shot. I respect that this was acceptable in times past but think in these current times it is not. Graham Camm and the BLP Committee have taken a high moral stand re photography of nesting birds and the use of call playback, and rightly so. I'd be interested to hear comments from any individuals in our group with a scientific background (esp our President), if the ethics committees in their respective organisations would allow such activity in their research programmes.Their comments may prove me wrong and if so i'll drop this issue. As a retired vet sitting with another vet at a recent conference presentation, we were amazed at the lack of concern for animal rights. This is not to be taken as an attack on the presenter, who I have the utmost respect for, but trying to get clarification on the general issue. Hope this makes sense.
Cheers AB

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Last edit: by Andrew Browne. Reason: Expansion of explanation after much thought, and lack of input by others!
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