HelpfulGardener.com

I walked out and put some seed on the bird feeder. The House Sparrows and Eu. Doves are all over it. No House Finches. They were year round birds here and used to be quite numerous. Wonder what happened to the Finches?

Here it's rare for me to have house finches and even more rare to have purple finches. There have been years where there have been large flocks of them and years where I see none at all. Maybe you're just having an off year. Or they found another food source that hasn't yet run out.

And they are susceptible to avian conjunctivitis which has recently crossed into western US. Here's a link to an article about it:
https://feederwatch.org/learn/house-finch-eye-disease/

It has been a couple of weeks since seeing a goldfinch at the feeders. Usually there are more than twenty all winter. House Finches and Purple Finches have disappeared some time before that. House and Purples are rarer here during the winter but do show up periodically. I think like ButterflyLady29 says, they are loading up on available food before hitting the feeders. Most likely reinforcing nests as well.

hmm.... what's the weather been like?

I did a Google search on "fewer finches seen." One of the things I found was this (from BBC, but maybe relevant):

If it's cold, small birds burn off more energy reserves keeping warm and need to take on board more food to keep them going. Usually by this stage of the winter, seed and fruit crops are running low in the countryside so birds have to use suburban gardens to get enough to eat.

But as it has been unseasonably mild of late across much of the country, the birds have not been under so much pressure to find more food, says Mike Toms, head of garden ecology at the BTO. Bumper fruit crops also mean there is more to go round.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16743212

Also in various forums and chats, I found lots of people commenting that they are seeing fewer backyard birds, around the country NH, FL, also India, Australia, etc. This has been attributed to habitat loss, chemicals and pollution, being over run by pest birds, drought, etc., but I didn't find any actual science about this. A decline in the Christmas bird count (back in 2012-- I didn't find anything more recent) was attributed to drought: "Busby said that was partly because of the drought, which meant less plant growth, less seed production and less bird food. There was also the mild weather, which didn’t drive northern birds into Kansas as fast as a typically cold winter." https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/dec/1 ... er-months/

I know we are in big time drought here, but since this is our first year, we don't have any sense of whether we are seeing fewer birds than usual or not. Certainly lots fewer than we were used to in Cincinnati, but there's other variables there.

This year the finches showed up earlier than last year. Normally at this time of year I have three feeders going, adding another three by mid December. This year all six are up, and getting plenty of finch action. The only bird that has not shown itself in abundance is the Red Bellied Woodpecker.

Since, the weather here is mild all year and it is a couple of thousand miles to the nearest land mass, there is a captive population of birds here. Most of the common birds are aliens that people brought in as pets and released illegally and now they are well established. As long as the brown tree snake and other snakes are kept out of Hawaii and not allowed to establish (finally a use for the mongoose), birds are plentiful year round. Since most of these birds are territorial, when a colony establishes, it keeps other species away so most of the visits to my yard are the same types of birds. Since I no longer keep a bird feeder, some of the birds that used to come for the seed have gone elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the native birds are the ones that are most threatened by habitat loss, competition, and predation (cats, dogs, and pigs rooting up the trees)

The link to the Feederwatch article ButterflyLady29 posted on Nov 7 is also found on Cornell's allaboutbirds website: (LINK)

Click also on that map in the right side column: "House Finch Eye Disease Continues to Spread" You see how the arrow moves into Utah the most recently (2010).

James, it's the same story here. Ebird.org 's map for current year around sightings looks fairly encouraging for the House Finch but I wonder how it compares to 5 years ago. The females are pretty much just "little brown jobs" and the males' red is difficult to see while they are moving but I have not been able to identify a House Finch in several years. Now, my birdwatching is casual and mostly occurs while I'm trying to straighten my back in the garden.

The Goldfinch numbers were exceptionally high out there in 2015 and there were quite a few this year. From the comments on the Feederwatch page (which come right up into Nov 2016) the Goldfinch may also be susceptible to this illness. Hope not.

Steve

There were six pairs at the bird feeding station Sat. Nov.12, so they are still around here. No house finches or purples, though.

Snow this morning. November 17.
On the bird feeder, one Junco, one House Finch. No English Sparrows. That is two birds where we usually have around 50 or more hitting the feeder. Wonder if someone put out poison grain?

The House Finch is a year round bird here. They nest here.
English Sparrows are a common barnyard fixture and hang around anywhere cattle are fed. Today MIA

Oh, there was one White Crowned Sparrow on the feeder.

As winter has progressed, all the regulars are feeding: last weekend we counted 14 species including goldfinches, house finches, purple finches, juncos, chickadees, 4 kinds of woodpecker, sparrows, bluejays etc. The only missing regular has been the tufted titmouse. Not a single sighting so far. Even had a few bluebirds showed up at the pond.