Salty food is deadly dangerous for the birds!

There is a persistent myth that it is life-threatening for birds to hang out the pork rind from the Christmas ham because it is too salty. No animal benefits from too much salt in its diet, but for wild birds that seek food in many places, it won’t be an issue. A little salt is actually beneficial. Salty food that humans can eat can also be eaten by wild birds, and in fact, birds have been seen seeking out salt licks!

During the daylight hours, small birds spend much of their time searching for food. They are experts at finding goodies and visit many places. Wild birds are good at regulating their diet. So, they don’t just eat the salty pork rind that a neighbor has put out!

Is play dough dangerous then? Niclas Aronsson, who recently (November 2021) released the book "Feed the Birds - Everything You Need to Know," has delved into the salt myth in an exemplary way. The basis was a question of whether play dough could be harmful to birds. Niclas found a Canadian study where they investigated whether road salt could be dangerous. The foundation of that study was a perhaps partly justified concern that birds might peck at the salt grains spread on the roads against slipperiness, thinking they were stones. Many birds use stones as an aid in their gizzard to crush the food they eat—birds, as we know, do not have teeth. This assumption is quite far-fetched, as the salt melts quickly on the roads as soon as it comes into contact with air and ground moisture. Often, it is also spread in the dark when birds are not active. Anyway, the researchers came up with a so-called LD50 value for road salt and birds (Now, road salt is not the same salt as table salt - it has a completely different chemical formula, but one can assume the danger is roughly the same). LD50 means that a dose is determined, in this case for sparrows, where half of the birds die from a certain intake of a substance. It might very well be the case that more sparrows died in this study than wild birds have actually died from having eaten road salt... Niclas mathematically calculated from this study that bread, pork rind, and other common "human salty" foods cannot be dangerous for birds. However, play dough, which is extremely salty, could be lethal to small birds—if one were to feed them with it.

No one was really sure whether a bird, much like us, would likely spit out the play dough as soon as they got it in their mouth. Obviously, birds also have a sense of taste since they otherwise have taste preferences regarding different types of seeds, for example (read more in myth no. 1 about birds needing fatty food). And they have been observed seeking out salt stones when they want salt.

Janne Wester from Slåttergubben, who has worked with bird food for 12 years, investigated the matter in the following way:
First of all, birds are ALWAYS skeptical when it comes to new food at a bird feeding station, so just laying out play dough and play dough crumbs could lead to incorrect conclusions. Therefore, he simultaneously introduced two new things to the birds. Oats soaked in canola oil (an excellent Swedish fat product) and a rather crumbly salty play dough. Already when he tasted it in the kitchen, it was hard to stop eating the oats while the play dough tasted exactly... well, extremely salty. The result - as usual, it took an hour before the birds dared to try the new items - even though Janne doesn’t feed them fatty seeds but only Swedish-grown field seeds, suet (and a bit of canola which is fatty). Birds are always skeptical when you make changes - it can be switching from striped to black sunflower seeds or vice versa. Introducing a new seed, switching from shelled to unshelled sunflower seeds, moving a bird feeder, or just putting out a dish with something that looks delicious, like in this case.

The result? It's so much fun to study the birds. After fifteen minutes, the birds dared to return—a hundred or so tree sparrows, yellowhammers, and house sparrows searched the ground as usual for seeds. But they kept a respectful distance from the tray with the new food. Then suddenly—a blue tit came down from the tree. Of course, a blue tit—they are always the most curious and willing to try new things. It settled directly in the pile of oats and helped itself. Was it a coincidence? Why did it choose that directly? A couple of minutes later—two great tits went straight to the oats. Had they seen the blue tit? Next, a brave house sparrow male approached the dough bait, took a big mouthful, and spat it all out clearly. He turned around and continued searching on the ground. Now a great tit jumped over to the dough bait—it maybe actually ate a few crumbs as it hopped around a bit. Another blue tit (maybe the same one) appeared, tasted the dough bait, but quickly turned away and chose the oats instead. Another female house sparrow now approached the oats—tasted, stayed, and took more. Another great tit (or the same one) seemed to pick up several crumbs in succession from the dough bait. More and more blue tits started to appear regularly at the oats. 

Janne also tested the dough bait on the family's tame black-headed parrot. The parrot willingly tasted when offered the dough. It spat it out immediately and began rubbing its beak against its shoulder as if to say, "Yuck—what are you offering me?" 

The chickens also got a taste, the tamest chicken, used to eating from the hand, quickly snatched a big piece of dough bait in chicken fashion, dropped it in several pieces on the floor, and picked up all of them. Turned around and took another mouthful and swallowed. When she was on her way to take a third bite, she wasn't allowed to. This is so typical of chickens... so incredibly fast and greedy. You might also think that natural hesitation has been bred out of chickens and that they have an unnatural trust in us humans and what we offer. You couldn't see that the hen looked worse off than the others in the following days. 

The oiled oats quickly became more popular, after a few hours everything was eaten up, while the dough bait remained. It's possible that a couple of great tits actually ate a little—I apologize to them if they get a stomachache. But since birds are also seen at salt licks, one might think they may have a need for some salt. Of course, it's not recommended for anyone else to do this test if it turns out that the great tit was indeed harmed. But now it has been tested. Most birds seem to be able to reject dough bait on the first taste. 

Tips! Organic Bregott is slightly salty and an excellent and inexpensive fat for small birds if you don't have access to organic pasture-raised tallow. Considering what you pay for, the actual amount of fat in Organic Bregott is fully competitive in price compared to purchased poor-quality tallow balls. This is something Janne at Slåttergubben has calculated thoroughly, so it's not a claim taken out of thin air. 

A small caveat: For domesticated animals that can't choose their own food, it might be too much salt if they are only offered salty food as an alternative.