Bird feeding chick cigarette end captured in picture

2 July 2019

A wildlife photographer has captured a picture of a black skimmer bird feeding its chick a cigarette filter on a beach in Florida, USA.

In a Facebook post, Karen Mason said she had happened upon the pair on St Pete beach outside Tampa last month.

She urged: "If you smoke, please don't leave your butts behind."

The UK's RSPB, which described the picture as "heartbreaking", says nature is struggling to adapt to human littering.

Ms Mason also captured another picture of the chick carrying the filter in its beak:

Birds can mistake the filters for food and feed them to their young.

"Many birds are curious about the things we casually discard, and will often investigate to try and find out if something is food or not," a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) told the BBC.

"Sadly, this parent has decided the cigarette butt is something to feed its chick.

"Nature is struggling to adapt to the things we are doing to our planet; every year, we see more animals trapped, injured or killed by man-made products. We are even seeing litter being used as nesting material.

"Unfortunately for many people, littering seems harmless, at worst it makes an area look untidy; however, heartbreaking images like reveal the true impact of littering on our wildlife."

Cigarette filters are usually made of plastic fibres (cellulose acetate), and take years to break down in the environment.

They are the most common item of rubbish collected from beaches globally, according to conservationists.

Source

The tweet smell of birds nests: Scientists find birds feather their homes with the butts of cigarettes

· Street-wise city birds are keeping their nests warm and pest-free by lining them with cigarette butts

· Nicotine and other chemicals in discarded filters act as a natural pesticide that repels parasitic mites

· The butts also provide useful nest insulation

· Study in Mexico City found average nest contained 10 butts

They may have been proven to cause cancer and smell out a home, yet for our feathered friends, the cigarette butts are a luxury item.

A team of ecologists have found birds are stuffing the ends of cigs into the lining of their nests - and it's not because they fancy a quick puff.

In fact, far from being unnatural, the scientists believe the smokes are simply the latest way in which birds drive away parasites.

Birds have long been known to line their nests with vegetation rich in compounds that keep parasites at bay. 

Birds species in the urban jungle have adapted the same behaviour to harness the repellent properties of tobacco.

The chemicals in tobacco leaves are known to repel arthropods such as parasitic mites.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2493657/The-tweet-smell-birds-nests-Scientists-birds-feather-homes-butts-cigarettes.html#ixzz2kMYlYBPk

Cigarette Butts in Nests Deter Bird Parasites

The sight of cigarette butts delicately woven into birds’ nests sparks an array of reactions, from relief that birds are adapting to urban environments to disgust at the display of human disregard for wildlife. But a new study suggests that some birds may benefit from nesting with cigarette butts. The nicotine lingering in filters may serve as an insecticide, driving parasites away from the nests and the baby birds living within.

As horrifying as the idea of baby birds growing up in a cigarette-filled home sounds, it’s not too surprising: the fluffy plastic in cigarette filters makes a fantastic construction material. However, cigarette butts are undoubtably smelly—a fact that has even driven people away from keeping them around.

But birds are actually quite fond of the chemicals found in some smelly plants, otherwise known as aromatics, from which “essential oils” are derived. Aromatic plants produce these chemicals to defend themselves against insects and other animals that would take them for food—but birds have their own use for them. Some nest-building species, including starlings and blue tits, regularly replenish their nests with fresh aromatics, and scientists hypothesize that the birds use these chemicals as parenting tools.

How would plant-derived chemicals help birds raise their chicks? It’s possible that the chemicals boost the immune systems or development of the chicks so that they survive better after they leave the nest; this is known as the “drug hypothesis.” Alternatively, the “nest protection” hypothesis suggests that the plant chemicals act as insecticides, driving parasites and other harmful insects from the nest.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2012/12/04/cigarette-butts-in-nests-deter-bird-parasites/