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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Where do birds go at night? (2 Viewers)

I know this may sound like a stupid question but where exactly do birds go at night?

2. You never see them in trees or bushes at night.

3. You never EVER hear them at all.

So where are they?

This is one of those things that you think about when you lie in your bed and can't sleep- "Where do birds go at night?"

N.B. Obviously I know that owls are nocturnal (in case you point that out!) so you CAN see them at night with some luck.

Thank you for contributions!
 
Sometimes you see them like on lakes and big roosts like pied wagtails but I think its because they don't want to be seen by things like owls and foxes etc
 
Did you shine a flashlight through all your local bushes? I suspect my yard birds are in the evergreens, a holly and some others.
 
2. You never see them in trees or bushes at night.

might not be able to see them but they are there :)

I see a lot of birds flying into roost at work (a large garden) where there are plenty of evergreens, at the moment is mainly flocks of finches (Green/Gold/Chaff/Brambling), Starlings, thrushes and Woodpigeons.

Holly, Yew and Laurel seem to be popular with small birds, the Woodies go into the Scots Pines. Also get 30+ Mallard fly in at dusk to roost on the ponds.
 
Sparrows roost in my 12+ ft evergreen spicky bush. Bluetits roost in the nest box we put up last spring. Don't know if anything roosts in the sparrow terrace.
 
Oh. Well thats my question answered then. Thank you. But i have another- what Is the possibility of seeing an owl in Ayrshire? Because i would love to see one!
 
Eagle Owl said:
I know this may sound like a stupid question but where exactly do birds go at night?

The place I work is on an industrial estate in Wigan. Two weeks ago I noticed Goldfinches (approx 50) visiting a particular tree on the estate every day just before sunset. They would then disappear. This week I discovered that they are roosting in a small bush right in front of my parking space. Very difficult to see in the dark, I now go and check on them every night. I can just make out these little motionless bundles of feathers in the middle of the bush!
 
If I go out during a dark evening sometimes there is the most dreadful clatter as the roosting pigeons and the solo cock pheasant hiding in the trees all decide to take off at once. Makes you jump out of your skin until you get used to all the commotion, so now I try not to go out or disturb them.
 
the other day I was in a car being driven down a country lane. In a tree there was a kestrel with its head on one side appeared to be sleeping. This was about 1pm in the afternoon.
 
Up here about about 500 plus Canada Jays will all congregate in a white spruce at night. You'll see them all 'disappearing' into the tree at dusk. Total silence and no droppings underneath.

When I lived in Calgary (southern Canada on the Eastern slopes of the Rockies) there were similar black-billed magpie roosts in the spruces. One tree was renowned and a destination for birdwatchers. theyve used the same roosting tree for years.

I've always found it curious that a pine martin,couger, lynx or other predator doesn't sniff these roosts out and have an all-you-can-eat feast.
 
Some of my area's best birding is from mid June through July at 8-9 in the evening. We watch a colony of great egrets finish the day on the marsh then head off to roost in the surrounding trees .Beautiful to see those white clumps in the last light of the day.
Sam
 
Eagle Owl said:
3. You never EVER hear them at all.


Ooh - a sweeping generalisation - I love those. (place smiley of choice here)

Two things to say here:

1: Look at the current threads about birds singing at night - granted it's almost always robins, but it makes "never EVER" look shaky.

2: I've often been out at night this past 40 years and heard odd little squeaks and chirrups from birds. But they are very quiet - if you're in town you probably wouldn't hear them; and usually they are very high-pitched squeaks or whistles, which I grant that many people may not be able to hear. (and no, before anyone asks, they're not sounds from bats).

Mostly they roost in sheltered places - evergreens are a major roosting place for small birds - go look in holly, ivy, leylandii (and related cypresses). Follow a flock of rooks at sunset - watch where they settle. I have a factory with a loading bay full of roosting pigeons and starlings.

It's a good question to ponder though. (I have a river at the end of my garden, and I always wonder where fish go in winter.)
 
Good idea for us all, to create at least one roosting site, for some of our birds.More so ,because of loss of habitat.If you can ,Plant a good thick Evergreen please. :flowers: :flyaway:
 
A couple of nocturnal reminiscenses from Nottingham:
A few years ago in mid August I was woken by the calls of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, which had presumably ditched down on the nearby playing fields. It was still dark and when I checked the time it was 3.20am. A couple of years ago in early August I was helping out with a moth trapping session and a Common Sandpiper flew over calling. it was 10:50pm. Robins regularly sing near my house at all times of night and I sometimes hear Carrion Crows at all sorts of unearthly hours.
 
Slightly off the subject but a pub I go to sometimes keeps chickens. Dont really see them around during the day but at night they roost in the trees above the car park. They are about 15ft in the air so I'm not sure how they get up there though!

Until he cut them down my neighbours leylandi was a roost for starlings and pigeons of a night.
 
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