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Can a strata owners corporation order a resident to stop feeding wild birds. And should the owner be feeding them in the first place?
The question was asked by Flat Chat reader Acid, who said: ”We get a lot of wild birds around our building and I occasionally feed the cockatoos and the kookaburras from my balcony.
“They leave minimal mess and they only stay for under half an hour at very specific times of day. However we have a nasty and vindictive executive committee and they’ve asked the strata manager to write me a letter demanding that I cease feeding all bird life around the building.
“To me this is an outrageous breach of my civil liberties particularly as there is no bylaw stating you are not allowed to feed wild Australian fauna on your balcony.
“The strata manager says that my feeding the cockies attracts “vermin” that mess on other people’s balconies. There is no evidence of this and the strata manager will not tell me what bylaw they believe me to be breaching.
“Do they have a leg to stand on here? How can I protect my rights?”
The balcony is almost certainly common property – i.e. theirs, not yours – but not having a by-law specifically banning bird feeding only means they are more likely to get you under a by-law forbidding behavior that may cause a nuisance.
But should you be doing it anyway? Environment NSW, the government department, says no.
“Hand-fed birds become a nuisance – you may start feeding one or two birds but, within a short space of time, great flocks can descend,” says their website.
They are susceptible to illnesses that can be transferred to other birds and young birds lose the ability to forage for food and may starve.
Populations of birds such as crimson rosellas increase, displacing other birds and mammals that shelter in tree hollows. Currawongs and ravens breed up and prey on smaller birds, causing an imbalance in populations.
The same message is coming out of Melbourne. Just back in August this year the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries warned Melbourne residents that feeding wild birds may be literally killing them with kindness.
According to THIS WEBSITE this followed the discovery since March of last year of about 200 dead or dying Rainbow lorikeets in the city’s eastern and north-eastern suburbs. The department says the most likely cause is an overgrowth of bacteria in the bird’s digestive system due to an inappropriate diet caused by people feeding them.
In Queenland, the website of the Department of Environment and Heritage protection says it is important to look beyond the short-term benefits of having a ‘free feed’ and ask what the broader implications of feeding might be.
It warns that lorikeets feeding from an artificial food source can suffer vitamin E deficiencies leading to muscle damage and paralysis.
“Artificial diets that lack calcium inhibit bone and feather development in young birds and can cause eggshell failure,” says their website .
I cites a case study where “a large localised die-off of rainbow lorikeets in Queensland was caused by a bacterial infection that had been picked up by lorikeets visiting contaminated backyard feeding stations.”
Needless to say, the Flat Chat Forum is all a-twitter with this one (as Twitter may well be too).
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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Well just to let you know that i know this guy ACID and i can tell you that
first he feed the birds day in day out it use to be morning and night now he only feed them at night we have so much birds and poo on balcony but he would not listen to us he feed them corn and crackers as well. The noise in the morning and at night is terrible we have all the evidence that he feed them as well as photos videos you name it we got it just in case, as he said he work on media and wanted to go to today tonight as well as current affair and make a story about us being a strata block from hell, we just finish painting out side as well as the balcony and every time we try to clean the bird poo the paint do comes off. Its bringing the property down because of the mess from the bird poo if only i can attach some photo in this i will, then he can see the damages he’s causing feeding birds.
He also mention that one of the tenant call the police and the police did intervene again not true maybe is best for us if he do what he said he will do then everything about him and the other tenants who do the wrong thing will be expose.We have a bird case going back to 2007, with an owner who has been feeding lorrikeets, kookaburras, magpies etc etc for years, with the resultant excreta coating the outside if the concrete balcony, and making the balcony below unusable by that owner. The previous owner of the lower unit left because their toddler couldn’t use the balcony, but the unfortunate buyer wasn’t aware of this problem. Clearly the conveyancing agent didn’t read the correspondence.
We went to Mediation, with the 40+ pages of history plus photos, but no resolution. Then to the Tribunal, at which the Member asked the suffering owner and the OC rep ” You don’t want to fine him, do you, you just want him to stop feeding the birds?” “Yes.”
The Member then directly asked the bird-feeding owner ” Will you give me an assurance that you will stop feeding the birds?” “Yes.” The hearing was then adjourned to a date 3 months away.
You can guess the rest. Reduced bird-feeding, withdrawal of application, resumed bird-feeding.
Now we’ve had the building painted. Too depressing. He’ll die sometime.
Maybe naming and shaming this kind of people is the way to go so everybody know that they are the tenant or owner from hell who only think about themselves never mind the others and the wild birds who’s been effected by their selfish action..
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