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What has become a huge and lucrative global industry, engaging millions of people, started as a simple, do-it-yourself domestic activity, primarily as a humane way to assist birds during winter. This chapter explores the origins of the practice and follows recent developments and rapid commercialization, highlighting the key points of innovation and development of practices.

Although bird feeding began as a predominantly winter activity – and remains strictly so in many parts of the world – there has been a remarkable change to feeding throughout the year, typically promoted by major bird and conservation organisations. This change is especially noteworthy because these same groups were initially implacably opposed to such a practice only a few decades previously. This chapter explores the possible influences leading to this significant change in the practice of bird feeding.

Bird feeding is an extraordinarily popular pastime, engaging many millions of people who provide enormous amounts of food for wild birds in their private gardens. This chapter describes the sheer scale of this practice in terms of volume of seed, numbers of people and monetary dimensions of the associated industry. It also poses the many questions that need to be addressed if we are to have a thorough understanding of this activity.

Although millions of people are passionately engaged in providing food to wild birds, the reasons and motivations for their participation are often complex and varied. Numerous recent studies but social scientists have attempted to discern how what are personal values influence the practice of bird feeding. These studies are unpacked with a view to understanding the changing attitudes to the practice.

The importance and influence of food in the lives of animals has been studied is great detail in a vast number of species. This chapter outlines the many findings of this critical research that are directly relevant to understanding how the provisioning of food for garden birds may be affecting their lives.

The popularity of bird feeding continuous to grow, enabling large numbers of people to see and enjoy the present of wild creatures in the own gardens. Such intimate encounters may represent a profoundly important way for an increasingly urbanized global population to connect with nature, with many possible benefits for human wellbeing. The book concludes that wild bird feeding is fundamentally for people.