Where have all my birds gone? (1 Viewer)

[TheBirdGarden]

All my birds have dissapeared from my garden. Just a few weeks ago I even had a sparrowhark come but now I have no sparrows, tits or robins they have all dissapeared is this something they do?

I still have the Goldifnches come about once a day and the typical crows and doves but nothing else I enjoyed the sparrows but now they have gone.....

Any help on this?

 

[happigumble]

They are probably off eating all the insects, seeds etc that occur naturally around at this time of the year, so not so reliant on your garden feeders. Planting flowers, shrubs etc that attract birds is a good way of keeping them in your garden all year round.

 

[TheBirdGarden]

Hmm sounds like that could be it I had planted a whole lotta flowers a few wekks ago when the birds were still there but I guess that wasn't enought to make them stay.

 

[mary99]

All my birds have dissapeared from my garden. Just a few weeks ago I even had a sparrowhark come but now I have no sparrows, tits or robins they have all dissapeared is this something they do?

I still have the Goldifnches come about once a day and the typical crows and doves but nothing else I enjoyed the sparrows but now they have gone.....

Any help on this?

Only to say it is very quiet here too, but I expect they will all be back when food gets scarce again.

Mary

 

[longbow]

Same situation here. In Spring it's like an aviary, this time of year it's like a bird desert. Even virtually no morning chorus, save the always dependable robins. I'm already pinning for Spring and it ain't even fall yet.

 

[Nadia A]

Hi,

The birds are often moulting at this time of year after raising one or two broods of young so they feel more vulnerable.

 

[toonamp]

Just like to add my pennys worth.

For the last month I've had hardly any birds visiting. As the OP said before that it was a continuous flow of birds.

I had to refill the feeders every day, sometimes twice a day. Now it's not even once a week.

So it does look as if they're all off feeding on the natural food sources.

 

[Brian.Hart]

Make sure your feeders aren't clogged! This is probably not the case in your situation, but I've just noticed this same lack of birds in the last few days. I noticed that the feeder wasn't being emptied on a daily basis, and then I noticed that even though the feeder was full, the cups were empty! We recently got a new batch of peanuts and they are much bigger than the previous bag of peanuts. They are so big, they are clogging the tube and not allowing feed to fall down into the cups. I had to stop mixing the peanuts into the feeder. At first I thought the feed had gotten wet somehow, but I dumped it all out and checked it and that was not the case. I guess it's finally time to get off my bum and build that platform feeder for the peanuts!
Regards,
Brian

 

[chocmeister]

We have had at least 2 song thrush around singing until 9pm but for the last 4 weeks nothing. Do they move patch after nesting? Any clues?

 

[SaVas]

When I added my birdbath, the lack of birds became the Club Med of birds. Since its been a brutal summer here, I found a plastic birdbath (I would rather not spend the $$$ for a fancy one that someone might steal which is common in the city - people stole my potted plants from my front porch a couple of times in planters that weigh over 50 lbs each).

Between the birds drinking and bathing during the 100+ degree heat, I have to change the water out two to three times a day on my days off, and on days I work, I find it empty of water or close to it. I planted some perennials around it, and even more birds show up. I guess its like a close-by vacation for them, but where I was going through about five pounds of seed a week during the lull, now I'm at 25 lbs a week and thats without the squirrels.

 

[Joe1980]

The biggest thing I did was base my landscaping on the birds, planting native trees and shrubs that provide food. I put in a serviceberry tree a few years ago, and this year I had a big flock of cedar waxwings show up twice a day to eat the berries as they ripened. I also planted a patch of black oil sunflowers and millet seeds, to see how that'd work, and it seems to be a hit. For some reason, the birds seem to enjoy seeds on the plant better then in the feeders.

Also, a note on the peanuts.....there are different types, and in my experience, when my local feed mill switched to those bigger type of peanuts, and I tried them, the birds refused to eat them. I returned them and they told me that a lot of people had complained, so they went back to the smaller kind.

 

[poddys]

Our feeders have been really busy the last 2 weeks, with Coal Tits and Blue Tits raiding the peanut feeder constantly. There must be close to 20 of them nesting in a fir tree at the end of the garden.

Fewer (bloody great noisy) Wood Pigeons the last couple of weeks, but the Doves are making up for the numbers.

Haven't seen the Robins or Blackbirds for some weeks though, and we get few Sparrows here as well.

 

[energize]

I've certainly seen more birds in my garden generally over the last couple of weeks. Even the wren and robin seem to be back. My only problem is my new next door neighbour has recently acquired 3 kittens, so maybe my birds are being careful. Certainly hope so!