Dead birds in yard (1 Viewer)

Today after a few days of cold and rain (~8 - 11 °C) I found a couple of dead young starlings (fledges) in my yard. I'm wondering what could be the cause of their death. I didn't see any bite marks on them, although one was missing its head (probably eaten by some predator). Because of the bad weather adult starlings had difficulty finding food so I decided to help them by giving them fatback chopped into thin strips (to resemble earthworms), and crushed wallnuts. They really enjoyed the food themselves also feeding it to their young. Now I'm worried that I might have done them harm, that the food wasn't good for the fledges. What do you think? I've also found 2 dead young pigeons lying around which I'm sure did not touch the food. I've pictures of the dead birds I can upload later if it will help solve the mystery.

It's very difficult to say what caused the birds' death... I guess anything from extreme cold to starvation to disease to poison, is possible. It's always suspicious finding more than one dead bird close to each other, and I'd be concerned about finding more than one species dead at the same time.

I know nothing of your area, but I'd contact your country's equivalent to our RSPCA to report the deaths, as I'd assume they would want to investigate... especially with things like Poison and Bird Flu in mind.

Perhaps someone with local knowledge will reply with info that's more useful.

In the meantime, don't handle the dead birds.