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Unusual number of dead birds this year

14 years ago

Anyone experiencing more than usual bird casualties this year? And I'm not talking from predators such as cats or hawk. I first noticed this in early Spring with sparrows being so vicious to each other. Chasing, harassing, literally ganging up on both males and females. One of the most horrific scenes I came upon was a sparrow with it's head sticking out of a birdhouse - it's head had been pecked apart! I found some laying on the ground with similar injuries. Now I'm finding bigger birds like grackles laying in the yard sometimes with no visible wounds. So far I've found three. These bigger birds are fighting as well, from one end of the maple tree to the other. I saw one so stressed from being chased, that its bill was wide open as if trying to catch its breath. Are they stealing each other's eggs or young?

I was wondering. Do you think because of the weird Spring temps and so many bird species arriving earlier than usual, made food sources scarce? i.e. insects? or a shortage of nesting sites? I might add that this year I have seen more of a variety of song birds too and they are nesting. In Feb. I stop putting out birdseed, perhaps I shouldn't have and provided more food to help everyone get along. The neighbors have thistle seed feeders year-round, and they told me the other day that they are not seeing the number of finch like they normally have. Curious.

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Comments (2)

Dante1709
14 years ago
The house sparrows in my yard have raided a house martin nest and all live there happily.They usually form flocks/colonies and aren't that aggressive to each other..However, the head pecking sounds just like what a house sparrow would do..

Either way, less sparrows is a good thing..HOSP have been observed threatening and attacking 70 species of birds that have come into their nesting territory.You might think they're cute, but they attack and kill adult bluebirds , sometimes trapping and decapitating them in the nestbox and building their own nest on top of the corpse. They destroy eggs and young.

I didn't really notice anything..I do somewhat agree with the shortage of food : few berries are ripe, but there are still lots of bugs.
bulldinkie
14 years ago
i was told sparrows can be very nasty..so Im not surprised,There are alot of them here on my farm,no deaths
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