AN Amanzimtoti bird rehabilitator has made suggestions on how interactions between humans and wild birds could be maintained in a way that is not detrimental to them.

ALSO READ: Amanzimtoti’s hadeda in distress, needs urgent help

Carlyn Berry Hattingh has discouraged the feeding of wild birds as it makes them accustomed to human food, most of which are harmful to them.

“There’s a big problem with people feeding woolly-necked storks cheese, polony, bone meal, mince and viennas. This is unhealthy because birds cannot eat dairy. Mince, pets mince and bone meal are high in fat and re-feeding their young all of this could cause deaths and malnutrition,” she said.

While those who feed them are just doing it out of kindness, the birds become used to humans and rely on them for food, which puts them in harm’s way of other humans and their dogs, said Hattingh.

“It could cause them to become a nuisance by coming into houses, looking for food and it stops their natural instinct to forage.”

She advised those with home bird feeders to give the birds an occasional break, allow them to be independent and forage for a natural, balanced diet.

Carlyn was recently part of an effort at the Amanzimtoti Bird Sanctuary to try and catch a hadeda that had a plastic cap around its neck and mouth. The hadeda flew away and the search is ongoing.

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