Hello from Northern Virginia (1 Viewer)

Hello. We live in Northern Virginia, USA and have been active in backyard birding for many years. I am new to the forum and interested in the impact of West Nile Virus on bird populations. We usually have large numbers of tufted titmouse, nuthatch, chicadee, and other small birds. This year they have simply vanished. Only the goldfinch, cardinal, and the usual house finch, and sparrow have been visiting our feeders. We have also seen a few carolina wren and mourning dove. Have others noticed similar effects and is this due to WNV? I have heard and read a lot of anecdotal evidence but little in the way of hard data. Is anyone doing a study on this? Thanks in advance.

Ron

Hello Ron and welcome to Birdforum from all the Moderators and Admin. Staff.

Hello Ron. Welcome to Birdforum.

Hi, Ron,

Let me add my "welcome to BirdForum!"

The scientific community probably won't know for some time whether WNV is responsible for the lack of species being seen this year, but from what's been on the listservs, it sounds like numbers of migratory birds are down all over the country. Hard to know whether they just came through early, or found a different route, whether the disease has played a significant part, or a combination of these. Where I am, we've had virtually no Cassin's finches, chipping sparrows or pine siskins this year where they usually come in in flocks to the yard.

Ron,
Welcome to Birdforum. The only thing I've seen on WNV on birds was in the Feb 03 issue of Birder's World magazine within the last year. It was a brief write up on several studies. One thing the article suggested that was to help scientists continent wide to participate in the Cornell Lab's Project Feeder Watch.