Where have all the birds gone?

Hi - I have several feeders in my garden, offering sunflower seed, suet, mealworms and peanuts.  Last year I had a huge number of birds in the garden, including flocks of 20 to 30 goldfinch several times a day, plus green finch, chaffinches, all types of tit, and the other more usual birds.  Things started off well this year again in March to May, but at the beginning of June I began to notice that there were less and less birds coming, and now apart from some blackbirds, some juvenile starlings and some blue tits, all the others have more or less gone.  There is still the occasional goldfinch or chaffinch, but nothing like the numbers of last year or earlier this year.  Any ideas on why they might have left?  Is it normal at this time of year? Any ideas gratefully received!

I find this happensn in my garden every year at about this time. After fledglings have hatched, the majority seem to disperse, leaving the garden relatively empty. It's only when the weather gets colder in autumn that numbers seem to pick back up.

It could also be because it is so wet - there are so many flies and bugs around that the birds don't need our gardens as much at the moment.

I still have plenty of birds in my garden in Bournemouth. I have refilled the fat ball feeder twice this week. There a quite a few baby sparrows, they are so cure. I did find last year about september they seem to disapear, maybe they take their holidays at different times depending on what part of country they live. Don't worry I'm sure they will be back.

I think Lorelie is right- Springwatch mentioned this- birds moult at this time of year and are bit quieter around this time. I too have noticed that there is a lot less bird activity in my garden even though the food is still out.

Not sure whether moulting is the sole reason for the birds' absence.  I think it's more a case of their having to find different sources of food for their offspring - i.e. things which have some moisture content, as opposed to the dried foodstuffs which most of us put out for the birds during the winter months.  I've watched bluetits foraging al day long for tiny green caterpillars in nearby oaktrees - and when I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that it's probably the moisture content of the caterpillars which might be really important for newly hatched chicks.  That got me thinking about when birds actually drink for the first time in their life.  I've no idea!  Does anyone else know?

I agree with Charlie. I don't think there are fewer birds in my garden but the feeders aren't going down that quick. They don't usually at this time of year. There's a lot to pick from in the garden.Regards drinking, I'm pretty sure I've seen fledgings in the bird bath. Must keep a note of first sighting!

I'm not feeding the birds this spring or summer as I wanted more nesting in my garden and concentrated more on providing a good habitat for their foraging, plus I worry that the baby birds will not learn to fend for themselves so well if there is a constant supply of lazy food.

The blackbirds have had no problems providing for their chicks this year and the ring-neck doves would have been the same except the male blackbird wouldn't let them succeed in building a nest.

A couple of weeks back I saw mother and daughter blackbirds picking worms out my patio troughs and last week I watched a male Sparrow catch its bug in flight just a few steps away. I never saw this behaviour while I had bird tables, but I always supply water and the whole neighbourhood seems to stop by for a drink.

I have a lot of birds in my garden, of all kinds (see pics on the Wildlife Photos thread taken 2 days ago).

However, I would agree with one point made by the original poster. They mentioned an absence of greenfinches. Greenfinches used to be very common in my garden. But now there are none, I haven't seen one all Spring.

There's a thread about the absence of greenfinches in gardens this year at the RSPB:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/getinvolved/birdwatch/f/3711/p/67235/450252.aspx

The reason for this decline is a virus called Trichomonosis. It can affect all finches, but greenfinches seem to be particularly susceptible. More details about greenfinches and this disease at the British Trust for Ornithology:
http://bto2.org/science/population-dynamics/greenfinches-and-trichomoniasis

hypercharley......chicks get all their 'drink' from the caterpillars and grubs the parent birds feed them.  Adult birds get some from the same source but they also drink water.  I've seen them drinking from the bird bath, pond, puddles and the water trays under my plant pots, this is why it's very important to have a source of water in the garden for wildlife as just about everything that visits needs it to drink or bathe.

Hello BW - yes - I did realise that! but it looked as though some posters were under the impression that parent birds would be feeding their young with the contents of garden bird-feeders!  It's always amazed me that swallows, for example, must have to feed a brood of chicks with literally hundreds of thousands of insects in order to get enough "liquid" into their bodies.

I don't think Wintersong need worry too much about young birds needing to learn to fend for themselves - 

Cheers!  Ma - AKA Hypercharleyfarley - the nickname of one of my (now deceased) much-loved whippets.

I have still had loads of birds in my garden.. i have to fil my 6 feeders up every other day.. and the 2 bird baths every 3 days..  thou the starlings have slowed down a little.. i still get sparrows, chaffinchs, robins (who are always fighting) blakbirds.. (they ahve lot of young this year and are very bossy) thrush, dunnocks, blue tits, coal tits, doves, sparrow hawk (nearly hit kitchen window during his chase yesterday) gold and green finches and wrens..

all feeding well and happliy..

On Springwatch this year they said that adults will never feed baby birds from feeders, as they need moisture content in their food as previous posters have said.  However, the adults still visit the feeders to feed themselves - but presumably only one at a time whilst they are brooding.  Sadly,apparently high numbers of baby birds never got to fledge this year as the terrible wet weather meant that the parent birds couldn't find enough food to keep them fed whilst in the nest.  I am wondering if the large number of birds I had last year was actually later in the year when the adults were showing their fledglings where to get food.  If hardly any fledglings made it this year, perhaps that explains why there doesn't seem to be many birds around  

Lunarz, I haven't seen Springwatch but I would have to disagree with what they have said as I've  seen adult sparrows feeding their young from my feeders and Blue Tits are doing the same with their young. Looking out of the kitchen window this afternoon there were 10 sparrows on one feeder.

I do hope you're right donutsmrs - we did have a successful blue tit brood in our garden ourselves, although I know they started very early in the year, and I have seen a baby sparrow and a baby chaffinch too.  Just nowhere near last year's numbers.  Springwatch was really depressing - every day they showed another load of babies dying in the nest, all the while being filmed, either by starvation or flooding or predation.  According to the, it was mainly because the adults couldn't find enough food in all the rain.  I had to stop watching after the first three days as I am just too soft to watch that kind of thing!

I don't get a huge number of birds in the garden but there's been an increase and so I've increased the amount of food on stations, restocking them every couple of days. There's also been an increase in ground feeders too, hoping in amoungest the flowers and on the lawn, particularly in the morning. They don't seem to have been put off by the cat either and early evening come and perch on the trellis.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2157938/BBC-Springwatch-star-Chris-Packham-warns-pet-cats-ruining-environment.html

davidK .. that infor doesnt surprise me.. the cat down the road used to kill birds in my garden everyday.. i stuck spikes in the ground to stop them sitting under the undergrowth..that was t here for the birds protection form sparrow hawk to water spray and every thing else.. but the one thing that has stopped it coming in.. is the seagull nesting on my flat roof.. though i am getting fed up with them waking me up at 3am everymorning.. i will tolerate it as they keep it away

domestics cats are a damn nusiance.. not only taking birds but messing in the veg plot and digging up anywhere that has just been weeded out in ther.. they drive me mad..