dangers of feeding birds bread

[animartco]

Recently someone in my lane said she was feeding bread, and I asked did she know it was supposed to be wet.
I can't remember where I first heard this and I would like to know how dangerous the feeding of dry bread can be; or is it an old wives tail that it is supposed to be wet?
The theory goes that if a greedy bird eats a quantity of dry bread and then drinks or eats something very wet that wets the bread, it can swell in its crop and choke it. So I don't take any chances but I would like to know if there is any evidence of this happening? Actually I did have a duckling choke on bread once, but that WAS wet. Even wet it is a danger to chicks, and people are advised not to feed it during the breeding season - or peanuts, I would think chicks could choke on these too.
Of course bread is very popular, and very good for birds at this time of year, but perhaps only if soft and wet?

[artdemole]

Rice has the same problem.It needs to have been cooked in liquid so it swells.soft then crows adore it..but I dont feed it to smaller birds or put it on feeders.

[Paul mabbott]

There have been more than one lengthy threads on this before. There's nothing wrong with bread as long as it's good quality: a lot of sliced white bread though dries up and becomes like rock - not good for birds (or humans).

[darrenm]

bread isnt much good for wild birds because they cannot get much nutrition from it and you are much better off feeding bird seed,fat balls, dried mealworms or un salted meat products with high fat content

[SusieBee]

I read some good advice here from..Sorry forgot who..

That if you're going to feed bread to birds make sure it's brown, break into small pieces & soak it in water....

I always use granary bread to bulks up the mix, add mixed bird seed, oats, sunflower hearts, suet balls, chopped nuts, raisins and sometimes a little grated cheese or chopped fruit...

In cold weather the birds need the fatty foods to help them stay warm & survive the freezings temps. So the danger of feeding just bread is that they fill themselves up on that.

Still I think it's good to add because I'm feeding more birds.