where are the birds?

[HoneyBerry]

I put out 3 bird feeders full of sunflower seeds but no birds are showing up. In previous years, I put out just 1 sunflower seed bird feeder and it attracted all kinds of finches. I am concerned that I am not seeing any finches this year. I am noticing a new type of bird sometimes wandering around in the grass in my yard. I think they are starlings. They don't eat the seed that I put out though. They walk around in the grass.
My 3 bird feeders are just hanging there waiting for the finches to show up, but there are no finches. The feeders have been hanging there like that for a couple of months now. I saw a few juncos earler this year. I put millet out for them. But I haven't seem them lately. And I have not seen any chickadees. And less crows. I have bird baths out there too, but no birds. I did see a few robins earlier this year but not lately. This is really strange.
I think it must be the starlings. I have heard nothing but bad things about starlings. The robins that I saw earler this year were probably over-wintered robins. They were eating the holly berries.
I left some honey berries for the robins, because I know they like them, but I have not seen any robins in my honey berries at all this year.
I think that the starlings are killing the finches and robins and chickadees etc.
I am not happy about this.

[applestar]

Wow that’s a little creepy and scary. Something like that should be on local news though?

A few years ago there was a scare here because people kept finding dead crows, and I think it was linked to avian flu or West Nile virus ....

If you are talking about migratory birds however, maybe the odd weather patterns this spring has effected their movements? Or has there been any major landscape changes in your area?

...my property backs to one of few small wooded areas around here — and there used to be a farm beyond that. But when that farm and others in the surrounding area were sold and were turned into more residential developments — cookie cutter houses, the profile of birds that visits my garden changed substantially — became mostly the more basic, suburban backyard bird feeder birds.

It’s a wonder that some of the rarer wild birds still find my little patch and visit/stop-over — mostly while on the move and they don’t seem to stay long — maybe just a waystation.

[HoneyBerry]

I was thinking that there would be something in the news about this but I didn't find anything.
There had been alot of development going on. A huge population influx lately. Lots of development in the county. Lots of clearcutting.

[imafan26]

They must have flew over to my house. I have some new ones knocking on my window every morning. Habitat loss, competition from other species, predation, and diseases are the usual culprits. Feeding birds is not always a good thing to do. It selects for certain birds. If they get free meals all the time, they stop looking for their own food. The abundance or scarcity of food naturally selects for the strongest and does control the population to keep their numbers in balance with what the environment can support.

[digitS']

I have noticed ebbs and flows of bird specie populations. Last year, I learned something new about House Finches. I live right at the northern fringe of their range. I didn't see a single House Finch in 2018. In 2019, they are back.

A recent summer, the Gold Finch population made my garden almost chaotic! Not so much before or since.

I can remember the starlings showing up in their North American invasion during the 1950's. Farmers were complaining but not much since. The Starlings have recently hatched broods in the neighbor's hay barn, as they do every year. Robins have nests in nearby evergreen trees. That's been a common arrangement, also.

The robins may have come back early this year. There were hundreds of them here in March when unusually late snowstorms had dumped lots of snow. I don't know what they were finding to eat. Shortly after the snow melted, nearly all of them were gone. I'm not sure that we have the usual number of Robins as in past years. Where did so many of them go? I know that they are up in the mountains during the summer - maybe they left early for those locations, also.

Steve

[HoneyBerry]

Well, after reading that, I'm thinking that maybe the birds will come back someday. I do recall that the robins disappearing for a while and then returning years later. I see them once in a while now, but it's not how it was when I was a kid. There were robins everywhere then. So I am going to hope for a finch return and a chickadee return and a robin return.

[applestar]

It will be interesting to note what kind of birds will show up in their absence.

[HoneyBerry]

I am seeing some evidence of birds having visited 2 feeders. I haven't seen the birds, just the evidence. I don't know what kind of birds.

[HoneyBerry]

There have been finch chirps and junco ticking sounds near my porch this morning.
A very large bird was caught stealing bird seed this morning. My friend said that it is an rare and unusual bird called a Flying Fur Parakeet.

Flying Fur Parakeet

IMG_2409.JPG (44.16 KiB) Viewed 23162 times

[applestar]

[HoneyBerry]

The birds finally showed up. And so did the possums. So I am having to take down my bird feeders. Oh well. That's the way it goes.

[Gary350]

4 years ago wife & I were setting on the patio an I said, there are no birds anymore, I have not heard birds in a long time. Wife said, there are 100s of birds in all the trees. I said, I am not hearing birds. Wife said, we need to get your hearing tested. Now I have hearing aids I hear all the birds on volume 3 they sound so good. Wife is right there are 100s of birds in all the trees.

Early spring I put sun flower seeds in the feeders and no birds came. I know birds are hear but they don't come. It was Sept before birds started eating at the feeders. I think there are plenty of bugs & caterpillars in summer birds like them better than seeds. Now it is cold birds wait for me to put seeds in the feeders I think birds are hungry bugs all froze to death.

[HoneyBerry]

The birds did finally show up. Finches and chickadees. But I had to take down the feeders entirely due to rats showing up. I also had to stop putting kitchen scraps (fruit, potato peelings, etc.) on the compost pile due to rats showing up. This frustrates me, but it is how it is. I can still compost coffee and grass. No bird seed until I can figure out a way around the rats.

[PaulF]

The Cornell University Feeder Watch program I have taken part in begins this weekend. While several of the bird varieties are feeding at our feeders, the numbers of birds visiting is down from past years. Maybe there is too much other food out there. I am sure traffic will pick up as winter sets in. So far Juncos, Black Capped Chickadees, Goldfinches, Red Bellied Woodpeckers and a few House Sparrows.

[digitS']

audubon, losing more than 25% of North American Birds

[imafan26]

I am sure the extreme weather with drought and floods in different parts of the country impacted wildlife of all kinds. Add to that the loss of habitat due to human encroachment and human meddling and the natural cycle of adaptation or extinction of species (survival of the fittest and the most adaptable).

For me, the bulbuls, cardinals, finches, mejiro, and doves ( all non native species) have adapted too well.