Ban bread as bird food - it does more harm than good

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said it holds little nutritional value and suggested instead giving them a range of alternatives, including cake crumbs, crushed biscuits, grated cheese, leftover jacket potatoes, breakfast cereal, overripe strawberries and porridge oats.

Granary breads with seeds are marginally healthier than cheap white sliced loaves but still simply fill the birds up without doing them enough good.

Experts say the issue is particularly important at this time of year, when young are being raised.

Val Osborne, head of wildlife inquiries at the society, said: “There are many other household foods that would be much better for them.

“Bread doesn’t actually contain any of the vital ingredients to provide birds with the energy they need to breed and fee.

“The RSPB is asking people to consider alternatives such as porridge oats, cake crumbs and potatoes.”

The advice was mainly aimed at those people who feed the birds in their back gardens.

However, it is also applicable to swans and ducks found on lakes, ponds and rivers which might be fed by the public.

Feeding by the public has become important in recent years, particularly for species like the cirl buntings and tree sparrows, which struggle to find enough food in the wild.

The traditional experience of feeding birds with handfuls of breadcrumbs is familiar to generations of children and parents.