Hello, I am not exactly sure where I am suppose to post this so I figured I would start here. Sorry if I'm in the wrong thread. However, my question is in regards to dying sparrows. My wife and I have started feeding birds around our house a few months ago. We just use a "farm mix" due to the fact that we do not get very many different variety of birds. We have a feeder and we toss some on the ground. We usually get house sparrows, white crown sparrows, blue jays, cow birds, and some wood peckers and several doves. We also get the occasional hawk that tries to snatch up the little birds. A few weeks back we found a dead sparrow. We thought maybe the neighbors cat got it. The next day we found another. And this morning I fed the birds about 8:30. All was well. By 9:30 my wife seen two sparrows on the ground near the feed. Both were motionless and seemed to be in some sort of dispear. A few minutes later they were both laying on the ground and appeared to be in labored breathing. Just a couple minutes later they were deceased. No cat, and no hawk around. Our winter hasn't been bad and the current temps are near 34 degrees. We do not have any water out either. Can anyone give me any ideas as to why this would be happening? Thanks in advance.
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Dead sparrows (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter deputy375
- Start date
Gee, I'm sorry this is happening and frankly I don't have an answer for you other than to ask if your feeders are kept clean especially around the portals. Even that doesn't ring true to me because that usually just transfers eye diseases. I wont' recommend that you take a dead one to a rehabber to see if they can figure out what the problem is but unfortunately House Sparrows are not a welcome bird in the U.S. Not their fault and they are just doing what they are supposed to do but many organizations will not treat them.
At the rate they are dieing I have a sick thought that somehow they are being poisoned. I don't know whether you want to go to the expense of having a necropsy done by a local vet to see if they come up with any answers. But if it transfers to other birds, there is a real problem as well. Please keep us updated.
At the rate they are dieing I have a sick thought that somehow they are being poisoned. I don't know whether you want to go to the expense of having a necropsy done by a local vet to see if they come up with any answers. But if it transfers to other birds, there is a real problem as well. Please keep us updated.
Sangahyando
Well-known member
I think it'd be a good idea to cease feeding for some time, clean the feeders and see what happens before you put them out again. If the birds still die in suspicious numbers, maybe there is some poison around (maybe an unintentional side-effect of a campaign against rodents or insects?). At least here in Europe though, dead garden birds are often the result of diseases transmitted through (close contact at) feeders.
MTem
Well-known member
I agree - stop feeding and give all the feeders a deep clean with an appropriate cleaner (Ark-Clens or similar).
The other possibility is you have some contaminated seed - not unknown unfortunately. I'd suggest you start afresh with new seed from a known merchant.
Mick
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Bird flu doing the rounds, is another possibility.
MTem
Well-known member
Because they are an introduced, non-native species I suppose - bit like ring-necked parakeets and grey squirrels here.
Good to hear they are doing better where you are. The flock around our place has also doubled in the past 2-3years. Must be 30+ now. Nice to hear them discussing last nights Eastenders, or the US election, or whatever in the hedge along the drive
christine
Well-known member
Because they are an introduced, non-native species I suppose - bit like ring-necked parakeets and grey squirrels here.
Good to hear they are doing better where you are. The flock around our place has also doubled in the past 2-3years. Must be 30+ now. Nice to hear them discussing last nights Eastenders, or the US election, or whatever in the hedge along the drive
Ah, ok, i hadn't realised.
Agreed, it's nice to see and hear them again. They were a fixture in my childhood, then poof! they just suddenly vanished. I've seen more of them over the past year or two now though, i wonder what's changed?
nartreb
Speak softly and carry a long lens
The OP mentioned both House Sparrows (P. domesticus) and White-crowned sparrows (Z. leucophrys) but didn't specify which one(s) was/were dying.
At most backyard feeders in the US, the house sparrows will vastly outnumber white-crowned sparrows (For Rensselaer, Indiana over the past four years or so, eBird shows a handful of sightings of white-crowned with a max. flock size of seven. Same observer reported a flock of 50 house sparrows.)
So I'd guess the dead birds are all or mostly House sparrows. If not, that would be interesting information.
At most backyard feeders in the US, the house sparrows will vastly outnumber white-crowned sparrows (For Rensselaer, Indiana over the past four years or so, eBird shows a handful of sightings of white-crowned with a max. flock size of seven. Same observer reported a flock of 50 house sparrows.)
So I'd guess the dead birds are all or mostly House sparrows. If not, that would be interesting information.
They may not be welcome everywhere in the USA, but I enjoy seeing them. The only place I find them in is in our local shopping mall parking lots, cleaning up spilled stuff, just doing their job.
Yeah, me too. And in any case, they've been well-established in North America for almost a century now and are obviously here to stay so there's no point in fussing about them at this late stage.
Speaking of sparrows and established birds, I'm not a young person anymore(80 in July), but when I was a 10 year old kid, I liked to bird a lot, except I did it with a BB gun. 70 years ago the English Sparrow didn't have the same nesting habits as today. I distinctly remember the sparrow building nests in Oak trees, out in the branches. They were big nests with just a small opening. Nowdays, I never see this. All sparrows now seem to nest exclusively at Home Depot, Walmart or most any small strip mall that has an overhead structure. I have never seen one on a feeder, just in the shopping center parking lots.
