Why Are People Obsessed With Wearing Birdfeeders on Their Faces? Birding Experts Warn Against This Trend

Birds embody a surreal beauty that only avid birdwatchers will understand. As daylight peeks through a birder’s house windows, they venture outdoors and perch their telescopes or binoculars on the ground. Many twitchers often capture these bird sightings from far away distances and sometimes, wait for the feathery friends to arrive and have some food. Lately, ornithophiles on TikTok are obsessed with a bird-feeding trend called “face feeders.” A video by Michelle Lefebvre (@wildlifetastic) illustrating this trend, has amassed nearly 20 million views.

Lefebvre from Abbotsford, Canada, is a self-described bird nerd. Her TikToks are buzzing with a quirky sight that displays her standing in her backyard with a pair of unusual goggles that birds flock to, to have seeds. In this particular video, Lefebvre appears snuggled in a chair wearing a thick brown shawl with a blue hoodie cap covering her head. She’s wearing a pair of black sunglasses with a blue paper plate attached to them.

Scatterings of bird seeds fill up the plate. Within a few moments, a golden-brown American goldfinch skitters and nibbles on some seeds. Then two black-capped chickadees visit the makeshift feeding station and enjoy the treat. In the comments section, people congratulated her for making excellent use of free will. Her ingenious idea even attracted a comment from Google.

Another TikToker, Arne Moons (@arnemoons) tweaked the feeder idea by wearing a glass-shied mask instead of sunglasses that made him look like a creepy astronaut. A plate attached to the glass mask contained colorful seeds. Birds came in, pecked on the treat, and fluttered away happily. Although Lefebvre and Moons are bird lovers, long before their videos came to people’s attention, the “face feeder” trend was already up and running with one birdwatcher. Drin (@birdladydrin) was one of the first persons to share live face feeder footage. Lefebvre told Newsweek that she too was inspired by Drin’s videos.

One video, in which Drin appears wearing a bird feeder to her face, has garnered more than 35 million views. She appears bundled up in a Halloween-looking outfit with a puffy blue jacket, an orange woolen cap, and a brown shawl, against a wooden wall. Over her eyes are a pair of orange sunglasses featuring a funky eyelash design. A blue plate is attached to the sunglasses. With the help of a turquoise plastic cup, she spills some seeds on the plate and waits. A bird visits her face feeder and shoos away gripping some of these seeds in its beak.

Drin’s bird-feeder idea went so viral that even singer and TV host Kelly Clarkson featured it on her talk show calling her an “innovative naturist”. Drin revealed that she is a wild bird research technician who goes out into the wild, captures wild birds, and studies them. Bundling up in her blanket and waiting for birds has hooked Drin and many other bird lovers. However, some experts warn that this may not be the ideal thing to implement.

Nadia Xenakis from BC SPCA told CTV News Vancouver that these bird feeders can contaminate the person with diseases such as avian flu, salmonella, and conjunctivitis. “If you’re not willing to take it down weekly and do a thorough clean, it might be easier to have a bush that provides natural food sources for birds,” Xenakis pointed out. She asserted that natural food from trees is always a better option for birds. Severely aware of this situation, Lefebvre told the outlet that she takes critical precautions to protect herself, like covering her skin with a blanket, using sanitized plates and glasses, and throwing away the used plate.

You can follow Michelle Lefebvre (@wildlifetastic), Arne Moons (@arnemoons), and Drin (@birdladydrin) on TikTok to watch striking birds visiting their face feeders!