Dog and Bird Friends

A researcher drawing up a blueprint to attract birds to the suburbs has made an intriguing discovery — dogs can be good for our feathered friends.

Grant Daniels, 22, has surveyed 214 gardens in ten Hobart suburbs and found that those with dogs are more likely to have a healthy population of ground-feeding birds like the superb fairy-wrens.

Mr. Daniels, a graduate of the University of Tasmania School of Geography and Environmental Studies, said that it appeared the dogs ignored birds, and because of this lack of aggression, the birds in turn were happy to co-exist with the canines.

“Where there are dogs you are more likely to find fairy-wrens and possibly masked lapwings,” he said.

“Ground-feeders have learned they have nothing to fear from most dogs, unlike the threat posed by cats.”