Where is the birdsong?

Poststructural Pub
1

Not to open a can of worms (so to speak), but…It occurred to me this morning, I feel like I’m hearing less birdsong than I did as a child, or even later. The morning songs aren’t as cacophonous, I don’t hear as much birdsong while in the woods or driving with the window down. I know that the songbird population is said to be declining, but has anyone else noticed this personally? I’m hoping that it’s just that I’m living in a different part of the country than where I used to. It’s sad if mine is a real observation. (And no, I can hear high tones just fine!)

Robin

2

We had to kill the songbirds. Nothing personal against them or anything, we just were afraid they might attract terrorist.

3

According to the two year old article, your observation is accurate, though there is some good news, and there is something each person can do about it.

  • Bill

excerpts from:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1105_021105_BirdDecline.html

John Pickrell
for National Geographic News
November 5, 2002

A quarter of all bird species in the United States have declined in population since the 1970s, according to a report issued by the National Audubon Society.

…

Yet the news isn’t all bad, Gill noted.

Some species, such as the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)—widely cherished as a U.S. symbol—and the peregrine falcon (Falco pergerinus), were removed from the latest Watchlist, he noted.
…

Moreover, the rates of decline in bird populations vary greatly across species and regions. “Birds really do rebound when the quality of the environment improves,” said Gill.

What that means, he added, is that individual actions can have a positive effect.

Doing “little things [in the backyard] can make a big difference,” said Gill. Examples include planting native plant species to provide food for birds and using pesticides sparingly. Another way to help is participating in surveys of American birds.
…
<<<<

Finally, to put a bow on it, I recently wrote and performed a song, “Song Bird Sleeps,” the curious can hear me sing it acapella at:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/billchinmusic.htm

4

There has been a decline in many of our songbirds, at least according to some of the annual Audubon Christmas bird counts. In the winter a lot of our birds in North America go south, and guess where they spend the winter? In the forests of Central and South America. Those forests are getting smaller and smaller every year, so there’s not enough habitat to sustain as many birds.

Also, they use pesticides in Central and South America that are banned here in the U.S., like DDT (sold to them by American companies, of course), which makes the birds’ egg shells so thin that the babies never make it. There’s also less habitat in North America than there used to be because of development and suburban sprawl. So I guess we have to whistle more to make up for the loss of the singing birds. And create some habitat in our back yards.

5

Okay, this is all Northern California, specifically the northernmost East Bay of the SF Bay area:

Compared to my childhood, there are: many more hawks and falcons (probably because of banning DDT), more egrets, more blue herons, more eagles, more wild turkeys. Many more crows (but I know why, my Dad says there used to be a bounty on them, like a nickel a crow).

There are tons of mockingbirds but I think about the same as before, likewise blackbirds. I don’t hear many owls here in suburbia. I don’t see as many bats (I know, not a bird but they do fly). We have more sierra jays (the crested blue kind, as opossed to the flat head scrub or Mexican jays) down here in the Bay Area. For some reason, the starlings are less this year, I really don’t know why, but don’t mind a bit. Also, we have tons of mourning doves, the IQ challenged member of the bird world.

I don’t know if Calif. ever was big on songbirds but with all these cats, it’s easy to observe that the obnoxious or large birds are doing okay. The only smallish birds that I see in huge numbers are brown towhees, which scratch at the ground. It surprises me that the cats haven’t decimated them. Maybe the cat thing is overstated and that its actually pollution, lack of food sources or even noise that has driven the songbirds away.

We have bluebirds up in the canyon but I never see them around houses. I bet they are likely cat victims. Oh yeah, it seems like the same number of hummingbirds as in my yute.

To sum up, I have often pondered that perhaps the birds I see every day are those who have adapted to so many people and probably are a small percentage of the variety that once lived here. But I don’t really have the science to know if thats true, because even weeds provide a lot of seeds and I don’t know that the native plants were equal, less or more at providing that kind of food source.

6

WRONG!

Bluebirds are viscious! We had some nest in our back yard a couple years ago - the neighborhood cats (which usually frequent our yard) were completely chased away by the bombardment the jays dealt out. Some of the fledglings even joined in, and they could barely fly. Between the five kids and two parents, they gave many’a’cat a run for it’s money. I saw one of my neighbors cats with a nasty-looking, bleeding cut on its snout.

It was friggin’ awesome to see cats getting beat up by birds!

Alright that was a long schpiel for something no one in their right mind would argue. But, you gotta admit, it’s a cool story!

7

I hear great gobs of birds round here. Tweat tweat sqawking as soon as the sun’s fixing to come up.

In the local area, I’ve noticed robins, owls, chicken hawks, scissor tails, egrets, goldfinches, blue jays, woodpeckers, cardinal red birds, bluebirds, blackbirds, turkey vultures, crows, ravens, storks, indigo bunting, and sparrows. But there’s way more birds than that. Those are just ones I particularly noticed.

8

Blue jays, vicious birds to be sure, are a different creature from a bluebird.

9

The more we humans mess with our environment, the more our environment gets messed up.

10

a brilliant conclusion.

:smiley:

11

I was just thinking that there seem to be more birds in our neighborhood than ever before. We’ve got cardinals, robins, various sparrows, a type of finch or two, blue jays (they are all blue, with a crest on their heads), mourning doves, an occasional woodpecker, peregrine falcons and other hawks. There is one bird who starts a loud racket at about a half hour before sunrise. I could do without that one. And crows, especially in autumn when they roost in the treetops in their hundreds. It feels like a Hitchcock movie.
Tweet, tweet.
Mike

12

My mother has a jay in her yard that attacks cats, and a cat that seems imune from such attacks. I wish I had it on film. The jay swoops and pecks, the cat ignors it. I actually saw the jay land on the cat’s back and sit there for a good two seconds, trying to flog it. The cat laid down.
None of the other cats are this brave or stupid.

13

Around here the &^&%^% grackles have driven all the songbirds away - and some (*&(^^ idiot put grackles on some stupid protected list!

14

My earlier post about decreasing songbird populations and declining rain forest and DDT in South America probably came across as pretty depressing, but it’s not my feeling about birds at all. There are still millions of birds out there to enjoy, some areas probably have more than ever because of ornamental plantings, and if one pays attention, there’s a lot in the bird world to appreciate and be awed by. Whistling and birds are my two main obsessions, and I get a ton of enjoyment from both. If you want to see an amazing movie about birds, check out Winged Migration, a documentary that came out a year or so ago.

15

We have a TON of Goldfinches in our yard (about 2 hours North of Weeks.) I bet if you put up a Niger Seed feeder you would see the too.

The crested Jays are called Stellar Jays and the non-crested ones are Scrub jays.

I have seen a few bluebirds in our area, but not many and have not hear any call I can associate with them particularly.

Although non-native, I have heard turkey in our area and have quite a flock growing in the area where I work. Quite adaptable these, as my work area is in a quickly growing urban area.

Not many quail where I live, although I hear one once in a while. Wish there were more, I really like their call.

A pair of dove have inflitrated our Stellar Jay’s territory, apparantly with permission. The blackbirds and starlings do not fair quite so well againt them though.

For fun, the jays will come blasting through our open, but covered deck area. They seem to like to startle us, but recognize that we are their friends and do not harrass us, even when they have babies around. They are quite smart and love to come behind when we are digging or weeding to “clean up” after us. They are a gas to watch. I have seen one of them come blasting in from several dozen yards away to pluck a small grub out of our lawn or to quickly dig something out of the ground and gulp it down. AMAZING!

16

The predominant species in my neighborhood appear to be grackles, starlings, house sparrows, crows, and rock pigeons. Even last year we had a fair showing of cardinals and a couple of finch species (LOVELY singing), but I don’t recall hearing them this year, now that you mention it.

17

Along with habitat destruction and pollution, the introduction of non-native species can be added to the list of culprits responsible for diminishing numbers of songbirds. Starlings in particular have a reputation for reducing songbird populations through competition.
http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/frame/x177.htm

MartinMilner couldn’t have said it better although I heard another good one the other day:
There’s no right way to do the wrong thing…

18

This is one that I developed and have used at work for some time:

We don’t have enough time to do it right the first time? :roll:

19

We have a lot of mockingbirds in my neighborhood, and they’ll sing anytime of the night or early morning, 11pm, 2am, 4am, any time, and LOUD, sometimes for an hour or more. Some of the neighbors hate these birds because it wakes them up and they can’t get back to sleep, it’s that loud. (When the birds wake me up I smile and roll over, it’s like a lullaby to me.) One night around 11 I was playing my whistle, and when I stepped outside, a mockingbird was blasting away right outside the door–I’m not sure if I got him started or not, but it sure seemed like it. The question is, was he mocking me, complaining about my playing, or singing with me?

I’ve heard the local mockingbirds mimic cell phones, pagers, car alarms, and anything else they hear. In fact, one time I was waiting for a delivery and I heard that beep that some big delivery trucks make when they go in reverse, so I ran out to greet the truck, and no one was there. I went back inside, heard it again, ran out, and again no truck. The third time I saw the mockingbird sitting there making the truck noise.

20

Well, I hope you all are right and it’s just a local thing. I didn’t grow up in New England, so maybe it’s just a different population.

One thing that is really weird to me is that, in Pennsylvania where I grew up, I never saw or heard one single mockingbird. It was only when I went south to college that I saw one. Now I’m seeing them everywhere in Massachusetts. Very bizarre! One poor little guy lost a battle with a car at the end of our driveway. We had a funeral. His nearest rival took up his post the next morning.

Robin