Very few birds this year...

15 years ago

Anyone else noticed a decline in goldfinches and hummingbirds this year? I seem to recall they go away while nesting, but this seems extreme to me. I have finches all winter and noticed a few about 6 weeks ago, but nothing since. The hummingbird population seems down to. I don't have a lot of them, but I usually have to refill my feeder every 3-4 days and this year they are just not eating it like they usually do.

I also don't seem to have as many birds nesting in the yard this year either. We did notice a red fox in the neighborhood, but other than that, nothing else seems out of the ordinary.

Anyone else noticing a drop in the bird population?

Comments (6)

Carol_from_ny
15 years ago
I think the lack of hummers is due to the extended bloom period this year of many of the flowering plants. They had natural food and didn't need mans help. As for the finches, I've got at least two nesting pairs in my yard. something I normally don't get. The other bird population seems fine as do the number of nest, even with a couple of owls, a eagle and the herons near by.
disneynut1977 ~ Melissa
15 years ago
I have only noticed 2 hummers myself this year. I do have quite a few different finches, cardinal's, downey's though. I even stopped putting out seed 2 years ago, because of my squirrel problem. I was thinking of putting up a thisle feeder again because of all the gold finches lately. Do I have to worry about foxes? I do have a young red male in our area, crosses my street to get to the field across from me but I have never seen him hunt birds, I have seen a chipmunk hanging from his mouth though.

Melissa
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penny1947
15 years ago
My hummers arrived very late this year. Not sure if they all returned but it does seem a little slower. I am still seeing the goldfinches but no sparrows, no black capped chicadees, no cardinals or anything else lately.

Penny
misskimmie
15 years ago
I have bluejays, cardinals, cedar waxwings, morning doves, sparrows, black capped chickadees and others I can;t think of right now or that I haven't identifies. But I haven;'t seen a hummer. I only get one or two each year even though I have feeders and plant flowers for them
hammerl
15 years ago
I've got cardinals, mourning doves, goldfinches, sparrows, black capped chickadees, I hear blue jays but they've snubbed my feeders thus far... and I still have grackles and starlings showing up.

I used to have downy woodpeckers but have not seen or heard them this year, and I have not seen any hummingbirds yet.

I did laugh when my husband's friend (who was over for dinner yesterday) looked at my nyger feeder, pointed and told his son, "Look, there's an oriole!" It was a goldfinch.

And, much to my dismay, we had a sparrow fly into the door yesterday morning and die. We have done everything to reduce this -- moved the feeder further to the right, away from the flightpath; put one of those bird stickers on the window; left the glass rain-spotted for a while to break up the reflection. We had gone a long time without any deaths.
blueberries
15 years ago
Funny, I just saw a cardinal by my compost this morning.