Would you eat birds?

Discussion in 'Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Food' started by remnant, Jun 17, 2016.

0/5, 0 votes

  1. Ystranc

    Ystranc Master Survivalist
      410/460

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Carrion birds are not poisonous, just not all that pleasant tasting. You'll come to no harm if you're just eating muscle not its guts. Cooking meat properly will kill any bacteria.
    In the UK most wild birds are protected but I've eaten game birds that are legal, everything from woodcock right through to goose and pretty much all the game birds in between. They're all good.
     
  2. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
      510/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    I've eaten pheasant and partridge, duck and goose.
    bird flu could in theory be passed onto wild birds if they came into contact with affected domestic poultry but I think its mostly the authorities being overly cautious.
     
  3. Ripkor

    Ripkor Member
      18/29

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Great post TexDanm, after reading through this I'm surprised I haven't heard anyone talk about the boiling trick for de-feathering. After you blanch your aviator delicacy, and pull all those wonderful feathers, put the bird over the fire to singe all those small pesky feathers that are too hard to pluck. Plus I think this gives the bird a little extra flavor!
     
  4. Its Evan G

    Its Evan G Expert Member
      163/173

    Blog Posts:
    0
    I mean I would basically eat anything if I was hungry. Not sure how much fat (if any) is on a bird though so eating just birds might not be enough for survival.
     
  5. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
      510/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    probably not enough fat on an individual bird , you may have to add some fat to your stew pot.
     
  6. Squirtgunsquirter

    Squirtgunsquirter Member
      13/29

    Blog Posts:
    0
    You can shoot birds with a gun or bow, you can bring them down in flight with a rabbit stick or boomerang. The easiest way is simply to trap them. - Keith

    ^This. Come on! I can't believe some of the responses on this post. A chicken is like a bird? Would I eat a bird? I'm not shouting, I'm just surprised.

    Look for some low bushes where sparrows hang out. Just watch during the day. A clump of bushes, that's all you need. Take a flashlight, and walk out there about 11pm to 1am. Shine the light in the bushes. Birds eyes are reflective, like a dog or cats. You will see their eyes in the bushes, they will be half open. Trust me, and if you are quiet, even with the light shining in there, you can walk up to about 4 or 5 feet. I used to smoke sparrows with a blowgun like this all the time when I was a kid, my mom only wanted songbirds at the feeder.

    Don't do it to survive, later on. Go try it out! It took me a couple tries to creep out there and get into the lilac bushes quiet. Sometimes they would all take off. Sometimes I would nail one, and it would thrash a bit, and the others would take off. After a while, I could just walk out there with a cheap mini mag taped to a chunk of copper tubing, that's all it was, my whole fancy setup LOL. And darts made of sewing needles and my dads cigarette butts wrapped onto the needles with thread. I could just walk out, and make a nice quiet puff, and knock down one after another. You get good at things after a while. But, if you never try, you are going to have some hungry nights before you get it down pat. Where I live now, it's a walk of about half a mile from the condo into a nature preserve where there is a long line of bushes where I can reliably flush small birds at night. I'm not killing them, I just walk there and you figure out where they like to hide.

    It blows my mind, that you could talk about a survival situation, starvation for Pete's sake, and question whether birds would be on the menu. My mom (a nice lady) would send me out at night to kill sparrows because she didn't like them at the feeder! And there were still always sparrows at the feeder.

    If I have nothing to eat, you better believe everything is on the menu. Sparrows, earthworms, ants, grubs, june bugs (june bugs aren't bad, I used to eat them to freak out other kids) mice, anything.

    I sometimes wonder if some people have ever been truly hungry in their entire lives.
     
    Old Geezer and Bishop like this.
  7. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    2
    I actually thought that eating birds and bird eggs was pretty much a world wide practice until this question came up. I guess vegetarians and such don't but in general they are sort of out of luck in a survival situation where you eat whatever you can find or starve to death so I don't count them.
     
    Keith H. likes this.
  8. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    7
    I think sometimes people don't think the question through, they know what they mean, but fail to put it across in the question. The question might be " would you eat non game birds" or "Would you eat carrion birds". Recently someone asked "How would people survive if it snowed?" Now obviously something has been missed out here, the question needs to be more specific, & we are left to read between the lines!
    In regards to vegetarians not surviving, one woman said she would rather die than use a gun to protect herself!!! Well there are worse things than death, but frankly I just can't get a handle on people who think this way.
    Keith.
     
  9. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    2
    There are MANY things worse than death! That is why it is insanely stupid to start a fight with an old man. Offered the opportunity at this point in my life I would happily accept a warrior's death in battle. I would be a real bad person to try and rob. Death before dishonor means something to me and I'll NOT die a coward!

    I have a walking stick in every vehicle. For a while I needed them but after a couple of hip replacements I'm pretty spry for an old fart. My walking sticks are all heavy and more clubs than canes. Even my cane is a stock cane for handling hogs and not a walking cane.
     
  10. AntonyRaison

    AntonyRaison Active Member
      48/58

    Blog Posts:
    0
    would I eat Birds?
    The answer is yes, Not only would I eat them, I have eaten them out in the field.
     
  11. L.Anderson

    L.Anderson Member
      13/29

    Blog Posts:
    0
    I think that most people have eat birds. But in the woods, we can catch birds to survive if we run out of food. It's not a big problem.
     
  12. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    2
    Actually if I was on the move and alone I would probably make birds my primary source of protean. I have an old air pistol that is deadly on birds with either BBs or pellets. I would have no problem shooting a couple of birds a day while I was on the move to have for dinner each night. Small birds have not been hunted by people and so have little fear of us as long as we keep our distance. They are plentiful and easy targets for a BB gun or even a slingshot and a couple of birds in a pot with various vegetables that you can gather as you travel will make a nourishing meal every night.

    For harvesting small birds you can't beat a BB gun or airgun. A sling shot will do the same work but takes a lot of practice where the guns offer success pretty quickly. In a lot of urban areas the pigeons are going to be a huge source of food for a little while. The problem will be that they are outnumbered by the people that are going to want to eat them and their numbers will be depleted pretty fast.

    I would like to propose a variation of this bird question.

    WOULD YOU EAT DOGS AND CATS AFTER THE APOCALYPSE???
     
  13. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    7
    I would cook & eat a dog only if there were no other food alternatives, I would not touch a cat, too many diseases.
    Keith.
     
  14. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    2
    Actually the eating of dogs and cats is mostly a moral issue rather than a digestive or nutritional issue. Both dogs and cats are common fare in China and most of Southeast Asia. I remember when the Vietnamese boat people were taken in and thousands were settled into South East and coastal Texas. Within 6 months the number of stray dogs and cats dropped to nearly nothing and there were a lot of fights over disappearing pets. To them it was like if I went somewhere that had chickens all over the place and in my yard all the time. I would just see them as FREE MEAT!!! Dog and cats will be an easy food source and you also have to understand that if you set traps you are going to catch a lot of them after their masters are gone and they have to fend for themselves. If I catch it I am going to eat it.

    As far as diseases and parasites are concerned pigs would be something to worry about a lot more than cats. We can catch from and give them many diseases and parasites where very few feline issues will affect people. Members of the rodentia family are also carriers of many health issues for people. The plagues were from rat fleas and even today some small furry critters like prairie dogs can carry it.

    Now, from the people that I have met that have eaten cats and dogs they tell me that cat is stringy and tough while dog is great eating if you eat them young and plump.
     
    TMT Tactical likes this.
  15. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    7
    Would you please explain your comment regarding my reply Squirtgunsquirter.
    Keith.
     
  16. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    2
    I think that Squirtgunsquirter, like me, was shocked that anyone would even ask the question, "Would you eat birds?". I know it was a little bizarre to me. Where I live we eat a lot of different domesticated birds and hunt and eat a bunch of different wild birds. To me, at least this question was a little bit like "Would you drink water?" I gathered that Squirtgunsquirter was sort of like me in his reaction to the question.

    I know that my culinary plate is bigger than most. I will eat nearly anything but to me, birds are just meat and probably one of mankind's earliest food sources.
     
    TMT Tactical and Keith H. like this.
  17. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    7
    Same here Tex, I just wondered why Squirtgunsquirter singled out that particular comment of mine. Made no sense to me.
    Keith.
     
    TMT Tactical likes this.
  18. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    2
    I went back and reread this topic and am as puzzled as ever by a lot of it. The idea of birds not being an eatable resource is strange. The idea that somehow birds are dangerous carriers of disease is just not a major issue. Germs are on and in nearly EVERYTHING. Most are harmless. A few are not but you are more likely to get something from a mammal than any bird. Most diseases won’t even jump class much less phylum. TEOTWAWKI is going to be a living hell for the germaphobes.

    I think that in part this bothers me for the same reason that I have always been uncomfortable with the idea of being a prepper. I generally more identify myself as a survivalist because the focus of prepping too often seems mostly about storing things so that if the grid goes down that you will be able to sustain a way of living as similar to what you have now as possible.

    Survival is about taking whatever is available and making do with it. The idea of not eating something because you don’t eat it now is a deadly idea. There is no fruit in the winter. Actually, in the winter about the only easily available food source is meat from whatever you can find. Fruit, nuts, and grains are not even close to being year around sources until you are established and farm them and store them. A hunter-gatherer can’t be picky.

    Prepping is fine and MAY be all that you will need to do but I think that you also need to be prepared to survive too. That means you leave the familiar places behind and live on what you can find while on the move to a hopefully safer place. You won’t be able to carry much and need to be able to feed, clothe, arm and shelter yourself from whatever is available.

    If you won’t eat birds or animals or unfamiliar foods you just won’t last long. Trying to live on vegetables found in nature that are not farm grown is a VERY low-calorie diet that isn’t going to allow you to move around a lot because you will have to eat a LOT to get what you would get out of a living critter. Fruits, nuts, and grains are just not all that easily found most of the year.

    To some extent to me, prepping is about things that you can hold in your hands while survival is more about internal things like knowledge and attitudes and your ability to adapt.
     
    TMT Tactical and Keith H. like this.
  19. Morgan101

    Morgan101 Legendary Survivalist
      515/575

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Would you eat birds? Seriously?! Is there a state in the Union that doesn't have a dove, quail, turkey, duck, goose season? I have probably missed a few. There are more medical studies than grains of sand extoling the virtues of eating poultry and not beef. Doctors and medical professionals make careers out of this.

    First thing we learned to do as kids. Go out bird hunting with a BB gun. Why would you not eat birds?
     
    TMT Tactical and Keith H. like this.
  20. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
      525/575

    Blog Posts:
    7
    aa0046c9daa31699589191ac12d6567d.jpeg
    Wonderful Expert By Robert Griffing.
     
    Morgan101 and TMT Tactical like this.
Loading...
Similar Threads Forum Date
Dangerous Birds The Hangout Dec 15, 2023
Why Birds' Names Change The Hangout Oct 24, 2020
Option For Making Birdshot A Better Stopper Hunting / Fishing / Trapping Jun 20, 2018
How To Attract Birds In Your Garden Gardening Jun 8, 2017

Share This Page