Will birds starve if I stop feeding them
Genuine reason to stop feeding birds is if pests become rife in your yard, so the big question is what would happen to birds if you do indeed stop feeding them.
Birds will not starve if you stop feeding them as they would quickly adapt to new feeding grounds. Few could be late to relies this, but in time your yard would gradually be devoid of wild birds,as they go elsewhere; to your neighbors yard or revert to nature. But never stop feeding birds during nesting season.
Birds would not simply stop foraging for food if you stop feeding them, as their instincts would simply kick in too go elsewhere to feed.
It would be easy for them hop over the neighbors fence to use their bird feeders, or if need be they would forage in the wild, as nature intended.
But this is unlikely for common backyard birds as they come to rely upon on bird feeders, and so won't be short of other feeders in your neighborhood.
It can take up to 3 days for birds to starve to death, so seeing as they spend most of their day foraging for food - its unlikely they would give up on life to not go out and search for new feeding grounds.
As it happens, birds might not disappear from your yard at all, as they could continue to feed off your lawn, within your plants or vegetation and trees.
Best advice I can give you is too gradually phase out the need to stop feeding birds, but never do so in times of need, or if its nesting season where a reliable source of food is needed in your yard, for the newly born young that mom is currently feeding.
Backyard birds won't starve
Don't be too concerned if you suddenly stop feeding birds in your backyard, birds are fully capable of finding new feeding grounds if one becomes scarce.
Why you wish to stop feeding birds is up to you, with genuine reasons ranging from too much hassle, expense or perhaps your feeding methods are attracting pests, such as raccoons or squirrels - to stop then is vital to deter these often nuisance visitors.
Backyard birds won't starve if you stop feeding them out of the blue, because as with any wildlife - they simply move on to new places to feed.
In this case common backyard birds would probably move onto your neighbors feeders.
Starvation time for wild birds is anywhere between 1 to 3 days, its vital then that in this time their food in the wild is not scarce due to long summer drought, or wet weather effecting their natural feeding behavior.
What is more important is making sure the summer heat doesn't effect their water source, so never pile on the effects of putting an end to the food source in a time where the water is drying up.
Go elsewhere if stop feeding birds
Simply put, backyard birds have evolved over many years at a time when people would throw only bread to them, to now with an advance bird feeding station setup.
In this time wild birds evolve to rely on bird feeders in many States, or depending on the time of year for example - and so will continue to seek out feeders in backyards.
That means if you gradually phase out feeding birds in your yard, or bring to it a complete holt; birds will uproot their once reliable feeding ground in your backyard to a new yard, or revert to feeding in nature if need be.
It could be far down your row of houses or over the street where new feeders can be found, so there's no need to worry too much about birds starving if you stop feeding them.
To stop feeding birds temporally while you already struggle to attract them to your yard, would not be advisable. To deter birds could be a real pain later when you decide to invite them back again.
With that in mind, remember it may not be so easy to attract birds back again once you got rid of them.
Continue to arrive days later
Birds that frequent your backyard daily would of probably done so since they first arrived with mom as young birds, to be fed at the hanging bird feeders.
Quite possibly then these same birds could be arriving in your backyard to be fed which ever means you provide them - for 2 to 3 years or more.
Where there is a food source wild birds will continue to arrive, so that is the reason for their reliable, daily visitation.
However, these same birds won't go away lightly if you suddenly stop feeding them, purely out of habit.
Its therefore possible to receive what would feel like the same number of birds arriving in your backyard to feed every morning, while only then gradually disappearing over the coming days.
In this time expect wild birds to gradually feed out of nearby yards or if need be, revert to foraging in the woods or on the lawn in your yard.
And that is especially true if you stop feeding your backyard birds, but you haven't cleaned up the spill on the ground below where once the feeders hung.
Phase out feeding routine
It can be troubling to wild birds who arrive at your feeders daily only to find they have disappeared out of thin air.
Most wild birds can and will adapt to this by simply wasting no time, and go elsewhere.
But that is not true for all birds, especially the young, who may continue to arrive in your yard daily while wasting valuable foraging time.
Birds spend most of their day foraging for food, so it would be advisable to not waste their time.
What you can do is phase it out, by simply reducing out much food you leave out, the number of feeder and so on - while this would last for up to 2 or more weeks if need be.
Never stop feeding birds in spring through summertime as difficult weather can effect food in nature at this time - but more importantly the new hatchlings need a reliable source of food.
Mom and sometimes dad would arrive at your feeders or yard to bring food back to their young; to remove it then in this time can have a dramatic effect on the parenting birds who rely on you to feed them, and subsequently their young.
Summarizing
While backyard birds have evolved over hundreds of years to rely upon people for a source of food on a daily basis, that is true more so now than ever before.
Wild birds can still adapt to feeding in nature as they would do when your feeder might be allowed to empty once in a while.
More so, they would simply piggyback off your neighbors feeders or feed on nearby vegetation or high up in trees - as they evolved to do so in nature.
Not to worry then, backyards will not starve if you stop feeding them. But that is not to say you won't cause other issues if you stop feeding them at the wrong time.
Where wild birds can get in trouble if you stop feeding them at a reliable food source, is in hot weather or in time of drought - as too forage in the wild is difficult with lack of rain or wet weather.
What else can be an issue and the most important thing, is to stop feeding birds when its nesting season. If mom comes to your yard to bring back seeds or other food to the young in the nest... what would she do if to find the feeders have disappeared.
Wait until at least September to stop feeding birds, while a hot spring/summer, or cold winter would be a vital time to continue to feed backyard birds.
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