When birds are moulting, it’s especially important to provide supplemental feeding.

A myth that unfortunately is being spread more and more by us who sell bird food. Could it be because we want to try and find arguments to sell more food and encourage customers to feed birds all year round? Yes – unfortunately, we find no other reason for this myth's creation.

Moulting is a technical term for changing feathers. All birds' feathers wear out and deteriorate. To maintain the functionality of their plumage, birds lose feathers according to a clever schedule that suits their species. New feathers grow in. It is true that during intensive moulting periods, more energy is required to replace all the feathers. Some waterfowl, for example, shed many of their wing feathers simultaneously, becoming unable to fly for a period. This always happens when there is plenty of food and it's summer, so they can eat and hide in vegetation. Many migratory birds undergo more intense moulting just before or after migration. It is also advantageous to moult during periods when there is plenty of food and they are not busy feeding chicks. So, it is true that much moulting occurs in late summer. The chicks have fledged, food is abundant, and migration is near.

As we have already touched on in other myths and will delve even deeper in myth no. 14, only a few fairly common species actually benefit from bird feeding. Most species are purely insect-eaters and migratory birds – they never come to bird feeding stations but have the same moulting patterns as great tits, blue tits, and woodpeckers. It is therefore completely wrong to claim to help "birds" during moulting by feeding them more. You might (maybe?) help a few bird species in an artificial way – but on the other hand, the cultivation of bird food (especially sprayed conventional food) negatively affects ecosystems for other species. Often species that face significantly greater challenges than the usual ones that visit bird feeders. It’s certainly not wrong to feed the birds – it’s a sweet and delightful hobby. But exaggerating the importance of bird feeding is misleading.