More Dead Birds. With a Twist?

Hmm... strange to say the least. I was unable to put my picnic table down this spring( I lean it up against the garage in the winter) because a robin had built a nest in the legs and had laid three eggs which hatched. I made a point to check on them frequently just because I love wildlife. I checked on them a couple weeks ago and a stray cat had gotten one of them and was devouring it. I boxed him up and took him for a long ride and havent seen him since. The other two died in the nest last week, momma simply abandoned the nest, never came back to it. I made a point to never touch the nest or the picnic table as momma wont come around if she can smell you on the chicks, so I cannot figure out what had happened.

I had previously chalked it up to the weather, we had a couple of unseasonably cold days last week, down in the 40's(F) with rain, but after reading this thread I'm wondering if there isn't more to it.

S@F to keep this thread going!

reply to post by rinowilli


Read a few more articles and it seems Heath Officials depend on dead bird reports to monitor west nile virus. Not sure if it is primarily baby birds that can be effected but may still be a part of this puzzle.

Dead bird reports are used to monitor potential West Nile Virus hot spots and identify other possible trends during the summer when mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus are most active, county officials said.

Adult crows and blue jays, as well as robins, finches, grackles, sparrows, wrens, swallows and cardin, are just a few of the 14 bird species that health department officials test to monitor for West Nile Virus.

Article


As far as the handling of the birds:

Birds not collected for testing can be wrapped in two plastic bags and placed in an outdoor garbage container. People disposing of dead birds should wear gloves and use a shovel or a plastic bag to avoid touching the bird, and even with these measures should wash hands afterward.

Article2

I'll be interested to find out the problem!

I hope you are not killing birds for the drama. I would hate to believe people would stoop to this dispicable level just for the thrill of it.

reply to post by tidycat


I'm insulted by the suggestion of such a thing...

I heard a bird expert just the other day mention that its a myth about not touching them for fear of passing on a scnt Apparently birds have a pretty poor sense of smell..

The majority of birds do not have a highly developed sense of smell. They will not "smell" a human and reject the nestling if you replace it in the proper nest.

www.snopes.com...

web.archive.org...://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/advice4.htm

reply to post by JayinAR


Have you tried taking any of these birds n to be tested yet?


My appologies if I missed a previous answer to the same question.

I haven't seen any dead birds over in the buffalo river area. but it seems to early for the mothers to be kicking them out anyways and I have seen baby birds survive 30 foot drops.

Here from Colorado and I can tell you I have seen this too and not just in Denver. Lakewood, Firestone, Longmont, Boulder, Golden and Colorado Springs have seen this as well. I had something on my Facebook about it because it was sad when I seen it and people chimed in about saying they seen dead babies around to from all the areas I mentioned above.

I would like to know if the weather here has had anything to do with it? It's been quite odd the last month or so.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


As I told you earlier, I have messaged a buddy who is in vet school. He will shed some light on what I should do. I do not want to handle the birds.

Originally posted by JayinAR
Exactly. Nothing is eating these birds. Not even ants. And no, it isn't disorientation. They are dying in their nests. It is an illness. Has to be. With all of the recent rain the birds have plenty to eat. It shouldn't be malnutrition.

RADIATION!

Originally posted by Janky Red

Originally posted by JayinAR
Exactly. Nothing is eating these birds. Not even ants. And no, it isn't disorientation. They are dying in their nests. It is an illness. Has to be. With all of the recent rain the birds have plenty to eat. It shouldn't be malnutrition.

RADIATION!

I would suspect that would be quite easy to test for and would be quite a news story. Hopefully the OP moves forward with some sort of actual investigation.

Originally posted by JayinAR
reply to post by incrediblelousminds

 

As I told you earlier, I have messaged a buddy who is in vet school. He will shed some light on what I should do. I do not want to handle the birds.

Cool. Keep us posted.

Thanks

Hmm another bird die off and this time babies? This is strange indeed, I do remember reading somewhere (not exactly sure whether it was here or on another site) that electromagnetism may be killing animals as of late. This could explain the fish die offs we've seen while the previous bird die offs were occuring. I haven't seen and dead birds here in New Jersey as of recently but I do have to say the birds are acting somewhat strange around here as many of them are still up and chirping after midnight clear into 4 A.M. and later. I say this is strange because its happening on a daily basis now and the birds here from what I remeber in the past would stop chirping by 9 or 10 or so, very rarely in the past have I heard them up so late. Maybe they know something is going on that we don't? S+F OP, thanks for bringing this up to our attention.

Edit: I believe this was the thread I read here on ATS that I was describing before.
Previous stated link here

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


I went ahead and called a veterinarian clinic to see what they thought should be done and they directed me to the local animal control officers. So I called them and there is apparently only one on duty today. I'll just have to see if I can catch him when he comes to pick them up so I can get some follow-up on the issue.

reply to post by LightAssassin


that's what I was just asking my husband... would it make sense that it was the radiation killing the babies, this also being the reason that other animals and insects are staying away from the bodies.

we were just talking about the fact that we're not seeing near the number of deer we normally do. I've been driving the same highway almost daily for over 3 years and don't see even 1/10 the deer I used to. the same goes for coyotes and foxes; in particular, I haven't seen a single fox in ages. going to watch and see if there are so many gophers around now that it's warmed up.

Originally posted by incrediblelousminds
I heard a bird expert just the other day mention that its a myth about not touching them for fear of passing on a scnt Apparently birds have a pretty poor sense of smell..


You're right about that. Just last month I found a young bird that had been trapped in an outside storage closet. I dug up worms and cut small slivers of mango for it to eat and a damp scrap of cloth to suck. I spent all day giving the poor little thing TLC and a safe place to spend the night. I woke up early in the morning and put him near a bush where other birds were frolicking for breakfast, and sat back and watched. The birds welcomed him and I watched him hop around for awhile before going back inside. I don't know if it was his mother that found him or another willing to take him in, but they didn't seem put off at all by his interactions with humans.

reply to post by Lacyisarobot


Apparently I don't know how to quote someone, and separate the quote from my following text. Sorry about that. Help please?

Bakersfield, California here.... had a crow randomly die infront of our house a couple days ago.
Was not a baby, but a full sized bird...

So...after seeing these birds for days now in their exact locations, I went over there to see if animal control was on the scene. Most of the birds are gone. Apparently someone else noticed them and decided to pick them up. Maybe I should have done the same thing, but in any event, only two remain in the initial location. haha. Animal Control guy is gonna be mad that he got called over there for two baby birds. Oh well.

And I am still convinced there is something to this...

I currently live in Spain (near Toledo) and I found three dead birds over the last 2 weeks outside our house and they all looked exactly like the ones in OP's post.

The first bird was found in the middle of our "backyard" (it's a small place, maybe 2 meters in length and 4 meters in width, where we dry our clothes etc..) and by the looks of it the bird fell from its nest and was attacked by other birds/animals (it had a wound near the stomach area as if something tried to "eat" it) but no sign of ants or other insects.

The second bird was found in the same area but much closer to the wall, I'm guessing it fell from its nest as well - again, no sign of ants or other insects and the third one was found a couple of days ago in the pathway that leads to our front door.

I'm not really sure what's happening to them but we do see a little green lizard every now and then running around our neighborhood, hopping on walls and roofs of the houses.