We don't put out feeders in the summer anyway as they can attract bears, of which our town has had numerous sightings. And we live along a river so bird baths aren't necessary.

We have been asked not to fill the feeders here in PA. The rain fills my birdbath but I dump it. With the hot weather we’ve had, I feel bad that they cant enjoy it. I filled the hummingbird feeder because I read that only song irds are affected.

Happening in parts of Kentucky too.

I've heard about this too. I don't have bird feeders but my neighbor put all of his away. It bums me out. I looked forward each day to seeing who would show up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Some birds, particularly gold finches, were affected here in the spring by fungus that developed on birdseed left too long in feeders. Clean out your feeders folks and discard unused seed, especially when the weather is rainy and damp. This past spring, and actually the past week too, has been been very rainy, so let’s hope the cycle doesnt start again.

Very sorry to hear this. We've lost so many birds already.

I heard the cicadas are dying by pesticide...the birds are eating them.

Birds dying in the 60's was the first alarms on the dangers of DDT. Birds ate worms in areas sprayed with DDT and had symptoms similar to those listed in the article. Still it took 10 years before it was banded in the united States but still used in a lot of countries and still killing birds. Nicole could be right.

I don't think that's it because we didn't have the cicadas here but we are getting birds with the disease.

Outside Playing, Audubon is asking that you eliminate all feeders and birdbaths for now, not just clean them. They don't want birds congregating where the infection may be easily spread.

We had bird Salmonellosis earlier in our area & took down all feeders for several months, until they said we could put them up again. Sounds different than what you're describing though. Our poor planet! Now come the fires & haze out here in the West.

Yes, we don't have it in my part of WV (yet), but the northern part does. It's deeply troubling.

Can't help but think of the canaries in the coal mines....

Years ago, I went to visit my brother. He'd purchased a large piece of farmland, where they were "now" building homes. I noticed he opened ALL his windows and he had no screens on them. I said aren't you afraid of getting bugs or birds in your house? He seemed to have neither....and hadn't noticed. THAT to me....is alarming.....and deeply troubling. It's not even being noticed.

If we want to save birds, outdoor cats should be outlawed. One new neighbor has an outdoor cat. It lurks under the bird feeders. Despite several requests to keep it in, it still runs loose.

I recently read an article about turkey vultures and other carrion eaters dying because they are eating animals shot with lead bullets. If hunters would use copper bullets, that would solve the problem of lead poisoning.

Anyway, i’ve taken down my feeders. Poor birdies. They are such a pleasure.

There's no way I can kick the birds out of the large multi-level birdhouse on the 25' pole in the garden. All sparrows and starlings. They are raising babies in those cubby holes.

The house needs cleaned inside and out, but that would have to wait until winter. what a chore. Needs painted again too.

I don't feed the birds in summer. There is plenty of food and water. I did take down my humming bird feeder.. The articles I read includes taking down humming bird feeders.

schoolhouse_gwagain they want you to put away the bird feeders and bird baths, not the bird houses.

dedtired "If we want to save birds, outdoor cats should be outlawed"

Then you should also outlaw falcons, hawks, ravens, eagles, owls, raccoons reptiles, and many other animals.

^ native/natural versus non-native predators.

Life is change. "Mother Nature" thrives on change, but at her speed. When we throw too many changes, too fast, it's overwhelming. Thus, the 6th great extinction, already underway, unnoticed.

Yes nickel, the 6th great extinction is underway, but not unnoticed by some...

Sadly we took our feeders down too.

If you do a little research you can readily find a number of scientific articles linking the decline in bird population to cats. Loss of habitat, climate change and use of pesticides and insecticides are also significant culprits but it's rather alarming to see the effect cats have too. And it's preventable.

There's a big difference between wild creatures like birds of prey and the domestic kitty that roams outside. One is eating to survive the other is merely following an instinct to hunt and kill but rarely needs the nourishment. DH and I adopted 2 cats but we kept them indoors and unless you live in a rural area or need rodent control that's where they should be. In our previous home our next door neighbor let her cat roam until I showed her the photos of her cat killing the baby bunnies in my garden.

"Here’s an alarming but little-known figure—stray cats and pet cats allowed outdoors kill 3.6 million birds every day on average in the United States, for a total of at least 1.3 billion birds per year."

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/12/accessories-for-your-murderous-pet/419601/

For outdoor cats: "bird be safe" colorful collar. Kind of cute, too!

I've always just kept my cats indoors.

Here’s an alarming but little-known figure—stray cats and pet cats allowed outdoors kill 3.6 million birds every day on average in the United States

I'd be interested to hear how they came up with such a statistic. Not every cat brings the dead prey home, how do they know how many birds are killed, and that the kill is from a cat as opposed to a dog or fox or squirrel or snake?

^ easy enough to google; believe the research or not.

The "Bird be safe" website has info on how it came up with its effectiveness rate.

believe the research or not.

It seems to me, that's not how science operates, one should not have to 'believe'. Somewhere in the experiment or statistic, there should be an explanation of how the result or number was arrived at, a description of methodology.

There's Science, then there's people's reaction to science. Most of us google, few of us are hands-on Scientists.

I listened to a discussion on NPR this morning about birds. It said they've (scientists/ researchers, I presume) have ruled out some causes but still don't know what's causing the bird deaths. I hope it clears up before winter feeding season.

All my many cats thru the years have always been indoor ones. I feed birds year-round, have six birdbaths and two ponds, and a suet feeder.

Our cats are indoors as well because it's safer for them and for the birds we feed and other animals as well.

But, while outdoor cats certainly don't help matters, bottom line is that the decline of many non-human animal species, including birds, is directly caused by humans.

Whether it's humans deliberately introducing non-native species into ecosystems (prime example, pythons in the everglades decimating many native species), polluting soil and water and air, dumping enormous amounts of plastics which also pollute, or ruining habitat to build yet more strip malls and walmarts to sell us crap we don't need, and lots of storage facilities to store all the crap we don't need nor have room for, we win hands down when it comes to destruction.

Cutting down forests to produce cheap, disposable clothing (rayon, viscose, modal and lyocell is made from cellulose which is obtained from cutting down old-growth forests and is directly contributing to Orangutan and other species decline, soon to be extinction), cutting down forests/rain forests to accommodate the demand for meat and cheap palm oil for food and cosmetics manufacturers.

And using pesticides on the lawns and plants and trees that kill all bugs, whether good or bad. And light pollution which kills millions of migrating birds by disorienting them and causing them to fly at night and crash into illuminated sky scrapers and other buildings.

Personally, I have particular contempt for those who deliberately choose to not spay/neuter their pets (cats in particular who are often treated as disposable and dumped or left behind when people move or no longer want them) and therefore contribute to their overpopulation and negative impact on other species.

I know they didn't include bird houses, I was just observing that my big house with multiple "apartments" is very much a gathering place for birds. No jays, tho.

I am not about to empty all my birdbaths when it's 95 degrees, feels like over 100. I clean and fill all of them every day and they are always occupied by grateful birds.

lily316, maybe look on your local news to see if this bird thing is a problem in your area. So far I think it's mid-Atlantic. But not everywhere, they don't have a complete handle on it yet.

I understand the push to keep birds from congregating at feeders and baths. In our local mountains, all the squirrels died out (and have not returned). This die-off was caused by disease being spread among squirrels congregating at feeders. Very worrisome about the birds.

I also filled my bird bath yesterday early evening. It was so warm and humid. However there is a creek a short flight away across the field. The water there is a lot fresher I'm sure. : )

We here in the west were told to take feeders and baths away last Feb. or so. I don't use a seed feeder (only sugar-water for hummers) because of the prevalence of rats here, but I do leave a small, shallow bird bath out under a tree. I haven't heard whether it's a good idea to put these items out again--I guess I should check.

I also take my bird feeders down mid-March and around November/Dec. esp if the weather is rough I put them up again.