I’ve been intending to write this little article for some time to pass on what I should have known years ago.

You see, I like to feed the squirrels around my house, because I train a squirrel dog occasionally.

I feed whole grain corn and have had flocks of birds come to get the hand out. I noticed my red birds have slowly been disappearing.

I don’t have any cats nor pellet gun users around, so I began to notice a little closer.

During nesting time, my birds were taking the easy-to-get corn and feeding to their young.

The corn was like feeding parched peanuts to a baby. The birds couldn’t digest it, so genocide (unintentionally) was being committed.

Insects are the best and easily digested food for wild birds. We use so much herbicide now that a lot of the insects are gone. So if you have to help out on the baby bird’s diet, I don’t know what to tell you unless it’s bread crumbs.

If anyone else has a solution to this problem, please let me know. Don’t feed the nesting birds something the young can’t digest.

E.H. (Jr.) Collins

Natchez resident