Bird Brain Trauma

I have written before on the different manner in which our local birds gain access to the interior meat of the sunflower seeds they pick from the bird feeder. Species with strong bills (such as finches) pick up a seed, crack it with a mighty crunch of their powerful beaks, and with their tongues flick out the nut pieces, as they spit out the shell. Small songbirds with their delicate conical bills (chickadees, titmice, nut hatches) must hold the seed tight with their feet, or jam it in the crack of a tree's bark, as they repeatedly bang away at it, slowly chiseling away the shell, to reveal the nut inside.

Watching a titmouse eat a few successive seeds recently, I noted that he banged away some 30-50 times on each seed. He might go for a few dozen seeds each day. Those daily blows must mount up! It suddenly hit me that it might just be possible that, over the life of a bird at our feeder, all those countless whacks could cause brain damage! There have been numerous articles and programs recently on brain trauma experienced by professional football players. After several years of head banging and incurring repeated concussions, some of these guys end up literally punch drunk, with permanently damaged gray matter.

 

I read many years ago that woodpeckers evolved a fluid sac surrounding their brains, which cushions the impact when their bill bangs into the trunk of a tree, looking for bugs. This is how they maintain their woodpecker smarts. I doubt the the little songbirds come with that shielding sac.

By kindly providing sunflower seeds, am I dumbing down these poor birds? Have I negatively disrupted Mother Nature's system by blundering in and trying to help? Is this just another example of human interference in the natural world, to the ultimate detriment of its inhabitants? Oh my... what can I do?

Well, if I knew how, I could maybe test the IQ of my sunflower-fed birds against their deep-woods cousins (who I assume must find softer sources of food). Such an experiment could tell me if I'm messing with their little brains. I think that's beyond my capabilities, however. Has anyone yet devised a songbird IQ test? And how could I even convince deep-woods birds to take such a test? OK, so I could play it safe and feed my local birds only shelled seeds. Like a toothless old man, they could mush the nuts up in their soft bills; no head banging required, no bird-brain damage. 

So I'm facing a dilemma here. What am I to do? Purchasing shelled sunflowers seeds is beyond my budget. Maybe I could shell them myself! It might take me 5-6 hours each day, but I could argue that I owe it to the birds. Let me ponder this some more.

Life can so easily get complicated when you take the time to observe what interference you are causing in your immediate world. Maybe I should just watch TV... then I'd not have time to notice such disturbing things.