Winter bird feeding has become widespread practice with genuine welfare benefits, but best practice matters for maximizing benefit and minimizing harm.
Winter bird feeding represents a genuine opportunity to provide welfare benefit to wild birds at modest cost. The evidence supports real survival benefits for birds that can access supplementary food during cold periods when natural food sources are scarce. However, welfare harm can arise from feeding inappropriate foods, maintaining dirty feeders that spread disease, or positioning feeders that facilitate predation. The welfare-positive approach combines appropriate food provision with feeder hygiene, cat-proof positioning, and supplementary native planting that provides habitat and food beyond what feeders offer.