Effects of seed colour on bird feeding preference

Methods: The variables including location, distance, amount of green, red, and yellow seed consumed were recorded in a three week period on October 1st, 8th, and 15th 2015. The species involved small bird species such as sparrows that are native to the York University campus (Keele campus) in Toronto, Canada. The university campus contains plenty of wildlife present in several fields and ponds. Five separate field locations throughout the campus were chosen to collect the data. Bird seed was dyed to create green, red, and yellow seed that was placed into bowls. Each bowl contained 30 grams of seed of a single colour. Bowls were placed at 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 metres away from a tree in each field. A green, red, and yellow bowl was placed (3 bowls) at each distance from the tree to produce 15 bowls at each field. Five fields produced 75 bowls of seed per observation day. The order of the colours at each distance was chosen randomly by choosing a colour from a hat. After observing for 3 hours, the seeds were placed in labelled bags indicating the colour of the seed at the specified distance it was in. The seeds were weighed on a university calibrated scale to measure how much seed remained. The weight of the remaining seed was subtracted from the original weight of 30 g. This difference in amount of seed consumed differs for green, red, and yellow seed indicating a relationship between colour preference and feeding. The amount consumed at each distance also differs indicating a relationship between seed distance from the tree and feeding.