Why Baiting Owls Differs From Feeding Backyard Birds

^{Note: This tip comes from Audubon’s article- Why Baiting Owls Is Not the Same as Feeding Backyard Birds}

Feeding backyard birds is a loved activity by many, but baiting owls is a controversial practice. Unlike feeding songbirds, baiting owls can disrupt their natural hunting habits, thus harming their well-being.

Is there a difference between feeding backyard birds and baiting owls? Or is the word “baiting” unfairly derogatory when it simply means giving live food to owls?

The Case For Feeding

Feeding backyard birds has been a tradition in America since the days of Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau. In the 1800s, it involved little more than tossing breadcrumbs out; by 2014, bird feeding was a $6.3 billion industry involving seed, suet, sugar water, fruit, and mealworms.

With more than 5 million households feeding birds, researchers involved in projects such as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch, along with hummingbird and bluebird conservationists, have amassed an enormous body of data establishing the value of bird feeding, both for the people who enjoy backyard birds and for the birds’ visiting feeders.

The Case Against Baiting

Two other groups regularly provide live meals for birds: owl researchers and photographers.

But setting out alive or dead rodents to lure owls differs from traditional bird feeding. With the latter, it’s a feeding station with other birds already present that attract new birds, not the humans providing the food.

However, there is no rodent dispenser that owls can visit whenever they want. As intelligent, adaptable predators, owls lured by mice learn to associate people with food.

Researchers have always called their practice of offering mice to owls “baiting.” 

As with setting mousetraps, baiting hooks to lure fish, and other uses of the term, baiting attracts an animal for an immediate purpose.

Scientists and rehabbers bait owls for banding, relocating them away from airports and other dangerous sites, and rehabilitating injured birds.

Baiting is the safest way to lure an owl for these purposes, and even if it gets the reward of a meal, the process of being trapped and handled is a negative experience, making that bird less, not more, likely to approach people in the future.

Photography, on the other hand, creates a positive association with bait and so lures birds to a situation that can be harmful.

Tip: As long as the techniques and goals of owl baiting remain so different from those of backyard bird feeding, calling it the name given to it by the owl banders who developed the procedure is logical and fair. 

“Baiting” it is. However,  baiting is an unacceptable technique for photographing raptors, especially owls as it places them in a predictable pattern that is open and dangerous.

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