Avian Rehabbers Make Public Plea: No Jelly in Bird Feeders!

Grape jelly might be the perfect complement to your peanut butter, but one place it has no business being is in bird feeders.

Raptor Education Group Inc. (REGI), based in Antigo, is once again making the plea to homeowners to keep jelly out of their hummingbird, oriole and other bird feeders, as the sticky substance has led to "countless horror cases."

So what's the harm in feeding this delicious treat to birds? It's very simple, according to Marge Gibson, executive director of REGI.

"Jelly is sticky, very sticky."

Gibson said that the question is not whether particular species are attracted to the grape jelly or whether it is an adequate food for the birds; it's much more basic than that. "If birds get any of the jelly, even on a single feather, they may fly off, but in the sun, the jelly melts and spreads to their other feathers. Birds cannot fly with sticky feathers!" she accentuated.

Since the "fad of grape jelly" began, Gibson ventured to say she and every avian wildlife center in the country has likely admitted countless horror cases of healthy birds that cannot fly or thermoregulate because they have fallen into a bowl of jelly or dipped a wing in jelly upon landing or takeoff, then ended up on the ground unable to fly.

So why does jelly cause so much damage, but oranges are okay? Gibson explained that oranges are natural, and while they have natural sweetness/sugar, they do not stick to feathers as jelly does. Oranges also are a natural food that attracts a wide array of avian species and are safe for them to eat.

Gibson said she is grateful that REGI's past Facebook posts on the dangers of jelly have gone viral with state and federal agencies and conservation groups, pointing out just how extremely harmful the fad can be to many bird species.

"Please understand you are not withholding anything from your birds by not offering jelly. It is not a natural food for them. Many birds and the babies in their nests that they cannot return to have died because of this fad," Gibson drove home. "Please return to providing oranges to orioles and hummingbird feeders without red dye. Water and granulated white sugar: 4 cups of water with 1 cup of granulated white sugar! Please! Nothing else!"