Birds, What we are not watching for: Do you still have birds of any kind in your area?

Nice observation regarding the birds, too.
I think I am going to go listen in GLP VoiceChat.

I took the drive.
I saw only starling in groups in the trees above a farm field and the 30 geese in an empty lot that have been there for the season.

I saw 2 mallard ducks walking on a frozen pond the other day near Seattle. I'm not sure I've ever seen that before.

15 miles south of philly and very little bird activity. feeder has not been touched in days.

SW Ohio here. I saw a flock of starlings today. But what I saw that was odd was like 5 huge crows in my trees out back. I don't think I've ever seen crows around my neighborhood before. It freaked me out. I don't know why, but crows scare me.

here in North Tampa Fl there are still lots of birds...alive and none dead so far and no dead fish by our lake. Lots of squirrels.I drove around town today and no dead birds........... I will be watching and will report any unusual instances in my area. so far all is well.

Central Missouri here....i feed my bird all year around.In the winter all of my birds are there at supper time waiting for me to get it put out ( 4-5pm)...i posted earlier this week that for the last few weeks there has not been as many as usual and not one single crow/black bird, and usually i have flocks of 30-40 eating all winter long. I used to put a suet cake out and it is usually gone in a few weeks.This winter it was over 2 months before i changed it.
This is all very odd to me.Even my blue jays have disappeared in the last few weeks and they never miss a meal.
When i put food out, i put enough out for the crew to eat that night and have enough for breakfast also.But lately when i go to feed the next night there is still food out there, this is very very odd because there is never one scrap left and they are waiting in the tree for me.
Also tonight i stopped at the dollar store to get another bag of cracked corn bird food that they like.There was not one single bag of any kind of bird food except for parakeet food and those black sunflower seeds that no bird i feed will even touch. Anyone else noticing this??

I saw some small birds eating the fruit berries I referred to in my o.p. They are a small variety. Tan, with yellows and greens and oranges lightly on their breast...only one or two of those colors in combination.
The color is very bright, but only like a brush stroke on their breast and sometimes their shoulders. The birds were here last year, but it seemed as though there were less.

I also witnessed a single magpie the day prior and today. We usually have a flock of 14+. Where did the others go? I saw the usual pigeon suspects flying today. It was a relief and a frustration to see a few birds. I realized how little I know about the birds normal habits -other than my passive observation.

I think it was probably a priority for humans to understand the patterns of the animals/birds etc to survive previously. Let's us know how little we know, again and again, when trying to make correlations on concerning issues like massive bird die offs or lack of birds in area.

Our pattern of watching the birds has changed by our very concern. It doesn't mean their behavior has necessarily changed...in all cases.

For the ones who feed the birds, they know best.

Last Edited by ExhaleAeonVolts on 01/07/2011 04:16 AM

the first ones eating the berries sound like cedar waxwings...were they tufted?

I live in the Chicagoland area, IL

We normally have 50-60 birds at our feeders - for the past week we have none, nada.
This is very odd. We called the Chicago Audubon today and the Pres. didn't seem to think it was strange. I do.

What is going on in the US?!

I read this earlier today and I looked all day for birds.
none on telephone poles, or houses eaves, roofs, trees, ground, in bushes or flying.
None.
I took a walk about a half mile from my house and none in the sky, in parking lots, not one bird- and it is forested here so it isn't because there is no habitat.

On the way into the house I heard a crow.
That was it.
( Atl area)

Wow. Most strange.

By the way, our birds love sunflower seeds more than anything - blue jays, chickadess, cardinals, woodpeckers.

You know, thinking about the 8,000 dead pigeons in Italy, plus 5,000 dead in Arkansas (plus all the rest), I can't help but wonder how many have died in the woods, with no one to observe their bodies.

I put out a new bird feeder a few weeks ago. Not one bird showed up so I bought another kind of seed and two weeks ago and still not one bird eating the food. Very strange in northern VT where this time of year there is nothing else to eat but the bird seed.

Tons and tons of pigeons in my back yard,,,

They love me, cause i feed them

[link to s1210.photobucket.com]

Lots of birds here in Austin... as evidenced by the above picture. Look at the bottom right at all the ones who had yet to fly overhead!

CO/NM Border here, The starlings have stayed, instead of going south. Seen a variety of migrant birds hanging around. Not in great numbers, but some. Had a big old owl on my roof 2 nights ago, which is unusual for us in January. Plenty of the usual suspects, Ravens, Magpies, Hawks, Eagles, Sparrows, Jays, etc.

The starlings staying around usually indicates a warm winter, but Dec was below avg cold in the last half of the month. Now we're about average.

They sound garbled now and scary.

I live on the northwest side of Phoenix - we are over run with pigeons, doves, quail, rabbets, bats, coyotes & many other furry & feathered creatures.

I have been following the aflokalypse stories - I will post it the 1st time I c any signs of major loss in the area - only death, cat next door left a bird 4 me - he is a very good hunter - stocker.

There are plenty of birds here on Mars.

Nope normal here where I live. Been feeding them since first freeze.

bump

Mo, here and Cardinals are still here.

Has anyone actually seen the dead birds they are talking about?

The bird population here in the Willamette Valley (Oregon) started decreasing about eight years ago. Yes, we still have birds, but not nearly so many as prior to around 2002. And some species of birds seem to have disappeared altogether.

I don't think many people realize that this is extremely alarming, and does not bode well for us humans.



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PS: I have suet, sunflower seeds and mixed bird feed out, and so far no customers. :(

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Central IL and our birds are still plentiful. We get a lot of cardinals, house finches, dark-eyed juncos, mourning doves, starlings, and even a few robins back around this past week. We've only had a feeder for a couple of years so I can't say how numbers compare to many years ago, but they don't seem to be acting any differently this week/year.

Central NC. I was looking for seed in a Food Lion grocery store, all they had was parakeet seed. It would make a great experiment for all of us to get feeders and keep track, and humane.Even for those birds seemingly not affected, this is turning out to be a harsh winter in many areas.

I love to sit out on a closed in porch with sliding glass doors across one side all year, and watch squirrels,birds, rabbits..it's been eerie here for awhile.I did see one lone bird a few days ago close to the porch looking on the ground for food. It flew up towards the glass, then flew off. I kept thinking of this for quite awhile, where are his buddies?

Chinatown, SF. Normally see one or two crows occasionally near house. But last week I heard so many crows cawing I had to look outside and I was shocked to see hundreds of them gathered on the roof of a building across the street - walking around kind of crazy, and most of them cawing very loudly for several minutes- they were really loud. Then they all flew into a spiral above it and flew east towards the bay. Never In all the time I have lived here have I seen hundreds of crows on the roof. I was afraid maybe it was going to be an earthquake, but I think it has something to do with the solar flare breaking through the magnetosphere last week! It was really like they were gathering and telling each other something not very good for them. Other little birds were flying with them.

We noticed the same in Florida (before we left because of the oil). Bird numbers just kept going down. Hummingbirds left too - never came back to the feeder one year.

Lowes is a good place to buy seed.